The road not taken
by emletish
Summary: Katara is feeling like her life isn't turning out the way she planned. She made a choice at the peace festival in Ba Sing Se, to be with Aang - but two years later, she can't help but wonder if she made the right choice. A surprise encounter gives her a glimpse at another world, and a different life she could have lived.
1. Chapter 1

"I'll be back in two months!" Aang said cheerfully, as he gave her a quick kiss.

"Is that a real two months or an Aang-two-months?" Katara asked, trying to keep her tone bright and light. She could be relaxed and supportive. She knew how important his time at the temples was to him.

"I'll be back in time to take you to the Peace Festival." Aang smiled and climbed up on Appa.

The Peace Festival was _three_ months away, but whatever.

She breathed out. Aang just wasn't very good with time. Organisation wasn't a strong suit for him. She knew that. She accepted that. One of the acolytes would remind him, they were good at taking care of him. She frowned, trying to suppress unworthy thoughts. It was a good thing he had the acolytes. _A good thing._ She wasn't going to ruin it by being the nagging girlfriend...again.

Aang noticed her expression though. He jumped off Appa and landed neatly next to her. He stood on his toes, so they were eye-to-eye, saying "Don't worry sweetie. I'll be back. I won't let you down."

He meant it, she knew. Right at that moment, he had every intention of being back when he said he would. Still, she was 98% sure she was going to be let down...again.

-o-

Nearly 3 months later...

Katara read Aang's curly writing and felt her face contort in anger. She crumpled up the scroll, threw it in the snow and stomped on it. It was childish she knew, but there was so little recourse left for her. Stomping up and down on his stupid words seemed like the best course of action. She stomped until her breath was coming is short, sharp bursts, and the ink had smudged the snow, turning it black. She knelt over and picked up the letter, bent the water out of it and threw it in the fire.

She forced herself to breathe in and out. Slow deep breaths. She told herself was being immature...really immature. She was being ridiculous. This was just a minor disappointment...and it was okay. Really it was. She knew how much Aang loved spending time at the temples. She shouldn't begrudge him that. They'd been restoring the training arena and he'd lost track of time.

She wasn't going to have this fight with him again. She was going to put this behind her.

At least he'd remembered in time and hadn't left her stranded.

Honestly, she would have used one of the ships and waterbent her own way to Ba Sing Se for last year's Peace Festival, if she'd know Aang was going to forget her. It was their stupid anniversary...and she'd wanted to see all their friends... and he sent her a stupid letter... just like this stupid letter... but he'd only sent it two days before the festival and there had been no way she could have made it on time... and she'd never been so angry in all her life.

He was trying, at least, this time. She wasn't going to get all mad because he hadn't come himself. That was something the old Katara would do. Old Katara used to get all angry and passionate when her feelings were hurt or she was feeling neglected. Aang was always trying to help her let her feelings of anger go. For his sake, she'd tried.

She breathed in and out, slowly. She shouldn't be mad. Aang was the avatar. He had important duties. He had priorities... It shouldn't make her feel like she was unimportant.

She looked at the letter in the fire. She wished she hadn't burnt it all now. Those last lines were sweet. They were proof that he thought about her. That he wanted to see her.

 _Zuko and Toph are arriving by airship, so I asked if they can swing by the south pole and pick you up, so you don't have to miss out of this festival. See you there, sweetie._

 _-o-_

Zuko and Toph arrived two days after she got the letter. The airship flew overhead and moored off the west cliff and she'd gone out to meet them. Gran Gran wanted to have a meal with her friends before they set off.

Katara heard Zuko's voice over the snowdrifts as she approached, coaxing Toph off the gangplank to no avail, while Toph clung to the last metal pole like it was a life-raft. Toph hated the idea of coming south. She couldn't see properly in the snow and ice and didn't like wearing big snow boots. She didn't want to step off the metal and be unable to see. She hated to cold and was moaning that she would freeze the minute she got out of range of the airship boilers.

"Stop being such a big baby Toph!" Zuko huffed.

"No, I can go no further Zuko. Just leave me here. Go on without me." She said as clung closer to the gangplank. "Oh sweet soothing metal, you are soo cold." she gasped as her hands touched the gangplank floor.

"Stop being so dramatic Toph." He sighed in reply. Toph snorted at being called dramatic by Zuko, considering he was more dramatic than an Ember Island Player's rendition of Oma and Shu in three acts.

"I'm not like Oma and Shu in three acts! You're the one who is kissing a gangplank right now" he snapped back.

"The gangplank understands me." She replied.

"How about you metal-bend a sled and I can push it with my bending? Then you don't have to leave the metal and I can get all my bags home easily?" a girl suggested from the top of the gangplank and she started throwing a large assortment of items over the side and into the snow. With a few waves of her arms, the snow underneath her bags had lifted them all into a neat formation.

She was a waterbender?

"That's a good idea Sarra." Zuko replied, as she descended down to attend her mountain of baggage. Katara instantly recognised her. She'd been one of Katara's students from the North. The first time Aang had gone on a solo trip to the Air Temples, Katara had come home to the South Pole to help rebuild. The town grew, as more benders from the North came to help in the efforts, among there number had been a few women. It had been Sarra who had approached her first. She was a talented healer. She wanted to learn other aspects of waterbending. Katara started teaching her. Pakku hadn't liked it, but he also hadn't said anything against it.

Katara'd trained four healers in Southern Style bending, but Sarra had been the quickest study. After a few months, Sarra said she wanted to see the world and had packed up a boat and set off. Now here she was, arriving on an airship with Zuko and Toph. Weird.

She was also the first one to see Katara. "Katara! Oh my god, it's been ages! You won't believe the adventures I've had!" She said and she pulled Katara into a big hug.

"No, I probably wont." Katara replied as she hugged her back.

Then she felt Toph's signature friendly punch on the side of her shoulder "It's been too long, Sugar Queen!" She couldn't help but notice how much taller Toph had gotten. She was only a little shorter than Katara now.

Zuko stood a little awkwardly to the side. He was taller too, but gaunt with it, like he hadn't been taking care of himself as well as he should be. There were dark circles under his eyes, and a tiredness in them that didn't vanish when he smiled at her. Katara wrapped her arms around him, and felt a twinge of concern. He was much thinner than he should be. She pushed her worry down. She knew it wasn't her place to fuss over him. He had Toph and his Uncle for that. Perhaps the thinness was just the result of rapidly growing. He'd evidently had another growth spurt since she'd last seen him. He could rest his chin easily on the very top of her head now.

Someone, either Toph or Sarra, coughed really loudly at that point. Katara turned around and saw that the sled was all pack up and they were ready to head off.

-o-

The trip home was quick. Unpacking Sarra's ridiculous amount of baggage into her hut took much longer. She'd brought souvenirs from everywhere she'd been travelling. Knick-knacks and carved animals from the earth kingdom, as well as some smooth and polished decorative stones from Ba Sing Se, shells and ceramics from the firenation, and inexplicably, a giant wooden tigerdillo statue.

"I can't believe you actually bought this stupid thing." Zuko said as he tried to man-handle it into an upright position for her.

"Ruan-Jian gave it to me." Sarra said and smiled. "It's to remind me of his virility and strength." Sarra said as she stroked the Tigerdillo's carved arm longingly.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww. Gross. We're about to eat!" Toph said. Katara couldn't help but agree.

-o-

Lunch was going nicely, which was a huge improvement from the last two times Zuko had a meal with her GranGran. The first time GranGran had refused to call him by his name, and instead referred to him as _hey you_ , or _that one, over there,_ and _Firebender Boy_ subjected him to much (not entirely undeserved) disapproval. He'd apologised profusely for manhandling her when he first met her and she seemed to soften towards him by the end of that arduously long and awkward meal.

The second time, GranGran felt bad about being so mean to him the first time, and made a Southern speciality: fermented and salted shark balls, as her way of apologising. She kept encouraging him to eat more, because he was too skinny etc, which Katara knew was GranGran's way of showing concern. Zuko, keen not to offend her again, ate a ridiculous amount of fermented and salted shark balls on her prompting, even though he hated the idea of eating animal testicles, had an extremely low tolerance for overly salted foods, and, as it turns out, was _very allergic_ fermented and salted shark balls.

That had been a mess.

Today, GranGran had made a lovely smoked trout, and placed it on the table saying. "I think Firebenders should enjoy smoked food." Zuko smiled at her, in gratitude. Gran Gran regarded him, saying "Eat up as much as you can – you're so skinny!" Her tone was stern, but her eyes held a gentle twinkle.

Conversation flowed easily over lunch. Katara apologised on behalf of her Dad and Pakku. They were away for the summer fishing season, but she knew they would have loved to seem Zuko and Toph. She told them all about her life in the South, her rebuilding projects. She didn't want Zuko and Toph thinking she was just _sitting around waiting for Aang_. She was busy. She had lots to do. She was even thinking of adding canals.

Sarra talked a lot about her travels throughout the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, and Katara seized on the chance to ask her what she had been doing arriving with Zuko and Toph in the airship. How did they even meet?

"Oh, Aang introduced us when he recommended me for the Clean Rivers Project." She said with a quizzical look at Katara. "You know, when you couldn't make it...Zuko needed a water-bender that was willing to work in the Fire Nation and I thought, _Hey, I'm travelling the world, I could check out the Fire Nation,_ and put my hand up for it." She looked across at Zuko "I know I was only your second choice, but I think I did okay."

"You did great." He confirmed.

Katara felt a rush of astonished disappointment. Cleaning up the rivers had been her idea. She told Zuko, when he was still recovering from his lightning wound. They'd spent so much time together then, when they had been waiting for the rest of Team Avatar to arrive. She'd promised to come back and help him fix the river systems, after the war. Then one thing came up after another. She remembered Zuko writing to her a few times, but Aang needed her help so much...

Still, she thought Zuko would wait for her. She swallowed her disappointment, and it tasted like a metallic lump in her throat.

There was a small awkward silence, before Sarra continued brightly. "Anyway, after the main river was mostly clean. I took a break to travel the Fire Nation, and I met Ruan-Jian and we had a great couple of months." Sarra changed the subject to her relationship with Ruan-Jian and how they used to go surfing together, and she'd used her bending to make wicked waves. She'd decided to come back, because after so long away from the poles, she'd become homesick...

"Sounds like it worked out nicely then, you could drop Sarra off and pick Katara up at the same time." Gran Gran observed. "I'm glad Katara doesn't have to miss out on _this_ festival." She added tartly. GranGran had been home when Katara had been left behind last year. She'd seen how upset Katara had been. GranGran had been a little frosty to Aang ever since.

"Oh, it's no bother." Zuko said quickly.

"Besides, between Sokka, Zuko and I, I don't think Katara's going to miss out on any more festivals, eh?" Toph said jokingly.

"What do you mean by that?" Katara couldn't help but ask, abruptly.

"Well, you know, we were at the Western Air Temple last week, and Sokka was visiting Aang as well. He was all _Don't you dare forget my sister again baldy,_ and Zuko was all _Really, I'll go down there and pick her up for you_ _ **right now**_ _, you idiot,_ and I was all, _Damnit twinkletoes, you such a dumbass."_ Toph said, doing separate silly voices for Sokka and Zuko, silly voices which he objected to. He elbowed her under the table while muttering something, but Katara couldn't make it out. She looked down and her trout, and pursed her lips.

They'd had to remind Aang.

Of course they had.

She felt Gran Gran's eyes upon her, and then the old woman reached under the table and wrapped her big wrinkly hand around Katara's. She gave her hand a quick squeeze, only for a fraction of a second, and then withdrew. "Tell me what's happening with Sokka? I have not seen my grandson in so long." GranGran interjected, moving the conversation away from Aang and his forgetfulness.

-o-

Zuko said it would probably take them a couple of days to reach Omashu, the location of this year's Peace Festival as he led them to the comfortable seats in the upper deck.

"How come your Dad's airship could make it from the capital to Ba Sing Se in less than a day, but we're still only half way to Omashu?" Toph queried.

Zuko shrugged and said "Maybe it's because his was powered by the comet...and homicidal rage."

"Ah yes. Homicidal rage helps" Toph nodded sagely.

"Look Toph, the crew are working as fast as they can. Why are you in such a rush? It's just Omashu."

" Yeah, but Uncle and I need time to find ladies and line up dates for you. It's the City of Love Zuko! "

"Monkey-feathers, not this again!" Zuko said, with an extravagant sigh and and pained look at the sky.

"It's been much more than a year! It's well pass time you stopped moping!" Toph said.

"Still, it's a huge **no thanks** to any dates you want to set me up on." Zuko said.

"Why?" Toph asked.

"Because I don't trust your taste in girls." Zuko snapped.

" Well I don't trust your ability to get dates for yourself." Toph snapped back. "Sarra was right under your nose for ages...and you _suck_ at this...and now she's dating some dumbass surfie dude called Ruan-Jian...I mean that could have been your huge-ass virile wood in her room right now.

"Eeew Toph. Eww. No. Eeww." Zuko said, with some disgust at the phrase virile wood.

"What do you think Katara? Toph said, rounding on her. "Isn't it time for Zuko to get himself some action already?"

Katara thought that she was definitely missing something in this conversation.

"What happened to Mai?" She asked, honestly curious. Last she heard, Zuko and Mai were unhappily in an on-again-off-again type relationship. Toph inhaled sharply.

"Woah, you really are out of the loop sweetness." She said, bluntly.

"We broke up." Zuko explained simply, and looked away out at the sea.

"I didn't know. I'm sorry." Katara said sincerely.

"It's no big deal." He said, with a shrug.

"Zuko, her dad tried to **kill** you, and she was **totally okay with that.** It was a big deal." Toph said forcefully.

"What!?" Katara exclaimed in alarm. How had she not known this? "Are you okay?" She asked with concern.

"It's fine."Zuko said firmly, his mouth set in a thin line.

"No, it's not fine!" Toph replied. "See this is exactly why you need me or Uncle to choose your next girlfriend. You think it's fine when your girlfriend hates you and wants you to die."

It was hard to argue with that logic. Zuko tried anyway.

-o-

Katara watched the green fields below ascend into the sharp, jagged peaks of the mountains. They were close. They were probably flying over the Cave of Two Lovers right now. It made her feel agitated. She was bothered by the way Toph had said she was out of the loop last night.

Toph wasn't wrong. Not entirely. That was the annoying thing. She was out of the loop. She hadn't the faintest clue what was happening in her friends lives. They'd been through so much together, she thought they'd always be close, but now there seemed to be such a huge distance between her and everyone else. Zuko, who took lightning for her, who used to trust her so much, hadn't told her something important. It hurt more than she thought it would.

Katara had grown tired of constantly travelling, if she was honest. She'd opted to stay home more, in the South Pole, while Aang went off on his adventures. She thought it would be better. She could be a kinder and gentler girlfriend to him, if she didn't have to see him everyday. It was much easier to be kind and gentle when she didn't have to see him luxuriating in the attention of his stupid acolyte fangirls. It always upset her and made her jealous. Then Aang would make her feel like the worst person in the world for feeling angry. He'd lost his whole people. How could she begrudge him any connection to his people in light of that. However, not travelling with Aang had resulted in barely seeing her friends; barely seeing Sokka, and he was her _family._ Maybe she had been to harsh – maybe she should try travelling with Aang again.

She breathed deeply and tried to calm her thoughts. She still wanted to make it work with Aang. He was a sweet boy, really. He needed her, and Katara had always liked feeling needed. GranGran had said their destinies were intertwined. Aunt Wu had said she'd marry a powerful bender; no one was more powerful that the Avatar. They were destined together, after all. Aang told her he'd felt that way, since she, despite the improbability of finding him after 100 years , was the one to pull him from the iceberg.

It had to be fate.

-o-

Iroh, Sokka and Suki were already there when they landed. They went back to the lodgings Iroh had organised, which were spacious and tasteful. There was a small gathering of people, friends of Iroh's. He was having a little informal party before the Peace Celebrations officially started tomorrow. Some Katara knew, White Lotus members and Bumi, but most she didn't. They were all influential though. She watched as Sokka and Suki chatted animatedly with all these dignitaries. Iroh and Pakku had initiated Sokka into the White Lotus last year and Suki was also looking to become a member. She was head of the peace keeping force in the free colony of Two Rivers.

Sokka and Suki were so delighted to see her. Sokka hugged her for a ridiculously long time and started to introduce her to everyone. They stuck by her during the party. They always tried to include her, and Sokka was especially delighted to tell her about everything he was working on. He kept trying to draw out her opinion. She'd missed him so much, but his boisterous attempts at conversation had the opposite affect that what he intended. They made her feel tired. She only really wanted to talk to him, but this wasn't the place to sit him down and catch up on everything, not while he was talking to King Bumi about his new invention. Still Katara noticed his look of hurt as she excused herself. She needed some air.

She went to the balcony and watched the sunset over the city. Two years ago she had watched the sunset over Ba Sing Se and thought to herself that the world would be so much different and better now. Then she had kissed Aang and tried her best to pretend it was what she really wanted. He had just saved the world. She knew he wanted her. Everyone said she'd come around eventually and no girl could resist the Avatar. But she couldn't help but wonder, now, looking out at the soft red glow, if she had chosen correctly.

The Avatar's Girl...like she was Aang's property, defined by her relationship with him, before being recognised for her own accomplishments. She'd never cared for the title, but never forced the issue either. She looked back at the party, at her friends. They'd missed her, she knew that. But their lives had kept turning without her – but it was like her world stopped without Aang; like she couldn't do anything without him.

-o-

"Hey Katara, walk this way with me will ya?" Toph said brightly, surprising Katara out of her reverie. Toph put an arm around her shoulders and started steering her back towards the party. Katara started to demur that she wanted to get some fresh air, when she noticed Lao and Poppy Bei Fong had also arrived at the party. Toph was making very certain that she kept Katara's body between herself and her parents as she steered them both towards the door. "Fresh air it is, sweetness. Let's go this way."They slipped out a side door and into the street. "You want some noodles? Let's go get noodles. My treat!" Toph said as she started walking determinedly away from the party. "Thanks for helping me escape the parents." She tossed over her shoulder, not even pretending her fascination with getting noodles was anything else.

"No problem, but why me?" Katara asked quizzically as she caught up with Toph's quick pace.

"You're still taller than me by a little bit." Toph answered with a wink.

"Well, if that's the only criteria - why not Sokka or Zuko? They're taller." Katara said.

"Yeah, but people would _notice_ if they were missing." Toph said jokingly, but then paused when she could sense Katara's reaction. People would notice the boys, they were important after all. She felt a sharp twang of disappointment.

"Sweetness, I didn't mean it like that." Toph said, as close as she could come to an apology.

"I'm sure your parents will _notice_ you've now absconded" Katara shot back, with more acid in her tone that she'd intended.

" Don't be like that." Toph said softly. "I'm not looking for a fight sweetness."

Katara felt something unclench in her. She wasn't looking for a fight either. Harsh and blunt as she was, Katara had missed Toph. and truth be told, she didn't really want to go back in to a room full of people who didn't notice her unless Aang was beside her. Toph could obviously feel her wavering.

"Let's just go get some noodles and hang out - just the two of us, okay. "She urged.

"Okay" Katara agreed.

-o-

They wandered into the central district and found a nice noodle place and sat down towards the back. Two years in a Fire Nation palace hadn't made Toph eat noodles more elegantly, that's for sure. She slurped loudly and with gusto.

"What are you thinking of doing after this festival is all over?" She asked between slurps.

"Probably back to the South Pole." Katara said. Toph didn't say anything to that, so Katara felt compelled to add "rebuilding, and putting in canals and stuff."

"Why?" Toph said without looking up from her noodles.

"It was my home. It needs rebuilding." Katara said slowly.

"I dunno, seemed like you were mostly finished, when we were down there." Toph said with a shrug. "Besides, there are so many other benders down there now. Sarra, even, could take over. Just tell her what you want built."

Katara made a face at the mention of Sarra, that Toph seemed able to sense.

"What? Why are you making a face? She's really good. Even Zuko was really impressed with her." Toph said with a sly little smile. Katara felt a definite frown form on her face. Just imagining Sarra cleaning rivers while Zuko stood behind saying things like _wow, that's impressive_ in his raspy voice made Katara feel supremely and irrationally jealous.

Toph, heedless of this, continued; "Look anyway, I'm just saying that you don't have to go back to your boring snowglobe. I'm setting up a cross bending school and I could use a waterbender."

"Cross-bending?" Katara asked, curiosity snapping her out of her jealous fog.

"It was Iroh's idea. He says taking wisdom from different places helps you diversify and be a better bender and it gives you wisdom and shit...also it would also be good for peace and harmony and understanding each others' cultures and whatnot." Toph added, as if peace and whatnot was an optional extra on her noodles, like chilli flakes.

"Would that really work?" Katara asked, sceptical.

"Zuko says its true" Toph said with a shrug. "He says he copied some of your moves, but adjusted them for firebending and it worked a treat. Dunno if it made him more wise though." She shook her head and added "He's such a hot mess." It wasn't really a nice thing to say, and yet she said with a great deal of affection. "This is why he needs a girlfriend. We just want to find him someone nice who wont mind that he's a big ol' mess. But does he appreciate our efforts...nooo." Toph complained.

"Maybe lay off trying to find him a girlfriend, if he's so unappreciative." Katara suggested in what she thought was a helpful tone, even though she mostly said it in defence of Zuko. She wouldn't have wanted Toph meddling in her love-life either, if she were Zuko. "He's more than capable of finding a girlfriend on his own." Katara added. He'd been going out with Mai on his own after all, nobody forced him.

"Please" Toph scoffed, in disbelief. " He's been single for ages now. Uncle says he's too good-looking to be single for as long as he has, so he must be fucking up in the-talking-to-women department...I mean I can't comment on that, I've got no idea what he looks like. What do you think?"

"What?" Katara asked, a little alarmed at this turn in conversation.

"Is Zuko too hot to be single?" Toph asked slowly, like she thought Katara was a little simple. Katara felt a blush creep traitorously up her cheeks. Thank goodness Toph couldn't see how red she'd gone. During their time in the beach house, especially when he was training shirtless, Katara had often thought about how handsome Zuko was, but she'd never told a soul. Besides, she'd put that crush well and truly behind her when she'd seen him kissing Mai.

"Why don't you tell me more about crossbending?" Katara asked casually, in an attempt to change the subject. Toph smiled a wide and cheeky smile, one that Katara knew well, but she began to explain her plans without further mischief. Katara listened with growing wonderment. Toph had really put lots of thought into this idea and it was a good idea – it certainly had potential. Katara remembered working with Toph to bend the sludge, how she could feel Toph's strength and force through her bending.

Still she couldn't shake the idea that this was Toph; the blind bandit, trickster, rule-breaker. Toph was lazy, couldn't take criticism and hated hard-work. She swore. She got into fights. Katara had always just imagined her lounging about Zuko's palace, not doing much. Now she had to rapidly adjust her view of this new Toph, who was responsibly planning on taking on this huge, ambitious project, who had detailed plans, who was currently talking about _real estate?!_

"….the land in the mountains has much more area, which would be good for my earthbenders, but it is still nestled near a volcano – so that will keep my firebenders calm. There's a stream nearby too for my happy-splashy waterbenders, so even though it's more expensive, I think it's the best place to set up. What do you think?" Toph asked.

"Toph you didn't even like setting up camp." Katara said slowly, trying to keep the condescension from her voice, but she thinks Toph heard anyway.

"That's why I'm asking you. This whole touchy-feely, organised thing isn't my style." Toph said, trying to make it sound light.

"Oh, so you want me to organise it for you? That's why you're asking me." Katara said, and inwardly hated the sound of her own voice – so brittle and disdainful. She actually thought it was an interesting idea. She didn't understand why was she being so hostile about this.

"No, I'm asking you because I think it would be good for you to get away from moping about Aang in the south pole." Toph fired back bluntly, evidently fed-up with Katara's attitude.

"What did you say!?" Katara hissed back, even though she'd heard Toph clearly.

"We all know about your problems with Aang, Katara!" Toph fired back angrily. "You never stand up to him, even when he's totally in the wrong. He takes you for granted and keeps fucking off and leaving you behind. You never see any of us any more, and when we do see you, you're so mopey...and sad...and bitter." Toph spat, indignant, before taking a deep breath. She seemed to deflate before Katara's eyes.

"It's not like you. You weren't like that before ….Why would you want to stay in the South, waiting for flaky-Aang, when you can come and live with me and we can have fun." Her tone took on an imploring, hopeful tone towards the end. She reached out for Katara's hand, but Katara snatched hers away and exhaled loudly.

"Are you feeling sorry for me?" Katara asked, icily.

"What? No! I just wanted you to..." Toph began, but Katara cut her off.

"You are! You pity me!" Katara accused, her voice almost shaking with anger. The thought that Toph, of all people, pitied her made her harsh and cruel. She stood up. "Look I don't need your help, or your pity or your stupid school." She snapped before storming away.

"Fine, enjoy your sad snowbox and pretending you're happy just hanging around waiting for Aang, or whatever. It's your life!" Toph yelled from behind her. But Katara kept walking, her head held high, never breaking her stride. She pretended she wasn't feeling wretched anguish on the inside, that Toph's brutal honesty didn't cut her to the bone, that she wouldn't have given anything for things to be different.

-o-

Katara stomped all the way down to the lower level of Omashu, where she fuming all the way. Where did Toph get off? Toph made her life sound so sad and pathetic. She made it sound like Katara was just some trophy girlfriend, hanging on Aang's arm, with no opinions or goals, while her boyfriend flounced about and neglected her; like her primary role was to support Aang and pack her own dreams away; like Katara was desperately unhappy in her relationship with Aang, but didn't know how to break up with him.

 _She's not wrong though,_ some traitorous voice inside her whispered. Katara pushed that voice down, deep down inside her. She buried it along with all her dissatisfaction about Aang.

He was still young and immature about so many things. He couldn't help that he was the last of his kind. He needed Katara to be his girlfriend and his mother, and she had so much love in her, she assumed it would be easy to do both.

But now, she wasn't even _doing_ anything.

Maybe that's why she was so cross at Toph, so envious of Toph's ability to make plans for the future and to take on important projects. Katara had always wanted to make a difference in the world. She was going to make it a better place. She felt like the best way to do that would have been with Aang. It was why she hadn't fought the idea of being with him so much. It made her feel like destiny wasn't such a terrible thing, after all, then. Despite all her misgivings, she'd kissed him at the peace festival two years ago, and made her choice.

In the two years since their first proper kiss (Katara didn't count the ones Aang forced on her), she'd accomplished precious little for herself. The one project she'd been wanting to do, she'd given up – for Aang. He'd needed her for something or other that winter, and in the spring they were looking for airbenders and he always go so lonely when he thought about being the last of his kind. She'd missed her moment. Cleaning up the rivers of the world, that was happening without her now. To make matters worse, even Toph – immature, feisty, stubborn Toph – was doing amazing things.

Zuko, Toph, Sokka, Suki – they were all occupied by things larger than themselves. She loved them, but she felt angry at them for this. Then she felt angry at herself, because she knew her jealousy wasn't fair to them. It probably wasn't fair to Aang either. It wasn't his fault that taking care of him wasn't enough for her any more. She tried to do the breathing exercises he taught her. She tried to let her anger go – but all of those air temple teachings weren't helping one little bit.

The sun had set, the festival stalls were getting into full swing – but Katara found she didn't currently care for the jubilant mood. She especially didn't care for the lovey-dovey decorations everywhere. Omashu had really taken to celebrating the tragic lovers for which it was named, and had assumed the name of the "City of Love." Oma's statue would grant you luck in love. Shu's view, on the upper ramparts, was a popular place for proposals. Omashu had become a desirable honeymoon destination, and just looking at all the happy canoodling couples, gosh they were _everywhere,_ was irritating her greatly. She started taking back streets and walking further into the quieter part of the city. Happy music, lovers dancing and giggling together, juggling acts and soft lighting didn't mix with her current foul mood.

She was so preoccupied, she didn't even hear the thud of feet landing behind her or the quick approach of footsteps until she saw a shadow reaching towards her. She whirled, forming an ice-dagger already. There was a man, all clad in nondescript dark clothes, directly behind her, one arm about to tap her on the shoulder. He retracted it quickly upon seeing her icy weapons.

"Hey, hey, hey – It's just me!" The Zuko said, holding his hands up in front of his chest in supplication.

"Oh Zuko" Katara said with relief, instantly recognising his voice. She dropped her bending water back into her flask. "You scared me."

"Sorry. I called out to you a couple of times. Didn't you hear?" He said, as he took of his face covering. Katara shook her head, and then glanced down.

"What is the deal with the ninja outfit?" She asked, confused.

Zuko looked down, and Katara swore he was blushing in the low light. "It's how I relax." he answered simply. She raised an eyebrow in response to this. "Whenever I have a really stressful day, I just like to..I don't know, leave firelording behind and escape the palace for a little bit." He explained, a little hesitantly.

"How often do you _escape_?" Katara couldn't help but ask, with a slight smile. It was just such a weird hobby. Katara could think of a dozen different, easier ways to relax that didn't involve getting clad all in black and running about on rooftops. But then that was Zuko for you; he never picked the easy option. Maybe he just liked dressing like a ninja.

"Most nights" he said with a little shrug.

"What were you escaping tonight?" Katara asked as she fell instep beside him.

" Uncle's match-making attempts...he's always so subtle." He said sarcastically, but with a fond little eye-roll. "What about you – why are you wandering in the lower ramparts?" He asked, trying to sound casual, but he was fishing for her to talk about the fight. Katara could see right through that. He'd always been a terrible liar.

"Toph told you, didn't she?" She asked, not beating around the bush, because of course Toph would.

"She wasn't happy when she came back, that's for sure." Zuko said, with another shrug.

"So, you've come to tell me that I was a total jerk to her and need to apologise?" Katara asked, sounding cross. So what if he had? It was the conclusion she, herself, had come to.

"Nope." He said. She looked at him quizzically. "I'm like Kyoshi island during the war– I'm neutral. Not taking sides." He said, as he turned to follow her down another alley. They started making their way back. Katara knew how this worked. One of their group would storm off, everyone else would gossip, someone would be sent out to get the person and calm them down. Evidently, this calming someone was meant to be Zuko. Katara couldn't help but smile a little at the irony of it. He used to be the one who was the most likely to fly off the handle.

They walked in a companionable silence for a few moments. "Did you want to talk about it?" Zuko asked, after a beat. Strangely, Katara felt like she could talk to him, despite all the time and distance between them. She remembered the days in the beach house, how much she'd opened up to him then. She'd told him things she'd never told anyone, not even Sokka. She'd always felt like Zuko understood.

"Do you think I'm just wasting my time in the South Pole?" She asked, diving straight in. There was a pause, she could tell he was weighing his words.

"Eerr – the South Pole looked great." He said hesitantly after a moment.

"Zuko, that's not an answer." Katara replied, crossing her arms.

"It would be nice if we got to see you more often." He replied, turning to look at her "We all worry about you."

"Oh, is everybody feeling sorry for me now?" Katara snorted angrily.

"We just like spending time with you! We just like seeing you happy - is that so bad?" Zuko fired back quickly. He ran his hands through his hair and muttered something that sounded like "Sokka said you needed more time," but Katara couldn't be exactly sure. The wretched look on his face as he said it made her regret her hostility.

"Sorry." Katara said gently "I'm just in a bit of a foul mood right now." She wasn't angry at him. She didn't want to have a second fight with a close friend today.

"Nah, like I get it... When I was banished, I hated the idea of people feeling sorry for me and I used to lash out at everyone..."Zuko trailed off with a shrug.

"Are you comparing the living South Pole to years of unfair, bleak banishment?" Katara asked, a little indignant.

"Eeerr...no." Zuko said, looking slightly alarmed. "Just we've all noticed you haven't been..." he looked around, as if searching for the right words... "You seem sad." He concluded.

"What's everyone saying?" Katara asked, honestly curious. Had her friends been doing nothing but getting together and gossiping about her behind her back? It made her feel uncomfortable. Why didn't they tell her their concerns to her face? Though she saw them all so infrequently, and it wasn't the sort of thing you could write in a letter. Toph, at least, had tried to tell her to her face, and look at how that had worked out, Katara thought to herself with chagrin, and something similar to shame.

"Sokka said you didn't sound happy in your letters and that you hadn't seemed quite yourself in a while. You seemed a bit lonely to him. He wanted you to go live with him for a while in Two Rivers, or he was going to go down and spend the winter in the South Pole and try cheer you up with his inventiveness and bad puns." Katara smiled to herself at that. "He didn't think the way Toph confronted you was cool. He said that you'd get all stubborn and defensive if confronted." Zuko added.

"Ah" Katara said with a nod, Sokka knew her well.

"Suki wants you to do some time with the Kyoshi warriors to clear your head. You know Toph's plan." Zuko finished with another shrug. Katara had the mad urge to ask him what his idea to cheer her up had been, but she didn't. It felt too personal somehow. His answer would mean too much to her. She didn't want to examine why. She thought she had put those silly childish feelings behind her. It had been a long time since she had indulged in thinking about all the ways Zuko could have made her happy.

"Aang doesn't always make me unhappy." She said instead, feeling like she had to speak in Aang's defence. All their friends were acting like she was completely miserable with him and that wasn't entirely right. Sometimes they'd had fun together.

"Well, that's a stirring endorsement." Zuko said sarcastically, clearly unimpressed.

"I just don't understand why are you all so down on me and Aang, all of a sudden." Katara retorted, crossing her arms angrily.

"We're not trying to be down on Aang!" Zuko said crossly. "Look, we like Aang – he's our friend too." there was a moment's pause, during which Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly, before saying "We just can see that you are both unhappy together and it's...it's not very good." He finished lamely, clearly out of his depth in this conversation.

"What makes you think Aang's unhappy?" Katara asked quickly, arching her brows.

"Maybe talk to Suki – This is not my area." Zuko answered, trying to back out of the conversation at record speed.

"Zuko" Katara said in a low warning tone.

"No, seriously, I'm not giving anyone love advice." Zuko said firmly with an emphatic pass of his hand. Katara thought it was a little late for that, given their conversation so far.

"Zuko" she continued in that same warning tone. She wasn't going to let this drop. The others thought Aang was unhappy too!? Why? She was the perfect girlfriend to him!

"Come on Katara - My last girlfriend let her dad try to kill me. I clearly have no idea what happens in healthy relationships." Zuko said with a self-depreciating sort of shrug. He'd shrugged so much in this conversation and it was starting to bother her, like he was used to dismissing his own words frequently. It was like he was used to shrugging things off and pretending they didn't bother him; that he didn't mean what he was saying.

It gave her pause. It made her feel a surge of furious protectiveness towards him. Zuko tried to make a joke of it, but Katara could tell what Mai had done hurt him deeply. If Mai had been in front of her right then, Katara wasn't sure what she'd do. Probably something violent. Something that involved slapping the gloomy girl senseless and shouting "You do not treat people like that!"

She still remembered that morning – the morning of his coronation. She'd gone to see him, to see if he needed any help. He was still recovering from being shot with lightning after all, and she'd been concerned. She knew he'd be too proud to ask though. She'd come across him and Mai, together. She'd walked away silently, wiping the stinging feeling from her eyes, and thinking _Mai had better be good to him._ Look at how that'd turned out. She didn't realise that she had clenched her fists in anger, just thinking about it, until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

Something in his touch relaxed her, even as he was saying"Okay, okay – I'll tell you." He was clearly misinterpreting the source of her anger and was worried it was about to be directed at him. _"_ Suki says that the way Aang's been avoiding you is a sign of...mixed feelings." he said, as diplomatically as possible. He winced, as if he was fully expecting her to be furious again and to take her anger out on him, the same way she had yelled at Toph, and he was bracing himself for impact. But he'd told her all the same. Zuko didn't avoid a truth just because it wasn't palatable. Katara liked that about him.

"I guess that's fair. I've been having some mixed feelings myself." She said softly, as she looked away. She could hardly pretend that the unreasonable way she'd been acting, the huge fight with Toph about Aang and now this extended mope were indicative of anything else. Still it was odd to think that the others thought Aang was also unhappy. After all she'd given up for Aang, he still wasn't content to settle down with her. Then again, settling down had never been the Air Nomad way.

She fell instep with Zuko as they made their way back to Iroh's place. Their route took them around the outskirts of the festivities. Zuko took out his severe top-knot and brushed his hair down over his scar with his fingers, but his efforts at disguise didn't really seem necessary. Nobody noticed the two of them. They didn't stand out in this crowd. She could hear the music and laughter wafting up from the bright streets, full of all manner of amusements and fun. The festival didn't even officially start until tomorrow and already everybody was celebrating in full swing. Food vendors shouted about their wares. Games had been set up everywhere. A group of people had started dancing in front of a lively band. _Urgh,_ there were so many cute couples! Did every single happy couple have to chose this moment to frollick in front of her?

They passed a fortune teller, shouting about how she could tell the future of your relationship with just one look at each lover's palm. She didn't have a dignified set up like Aunt Wu. She told everyone they got happy endings, judging from peoples' reactions to her predictions. She was doing a cracking trade. Everyone wanted a happy ending, after all.

"Can I tell you something?" Katara asked, plainly. Zuko nodded and waited.

"When we were travelling up to the North Pole, I went to a fortune teller. She said it was my destiny to be with a powerful bender, then for the rest of that day everyone kept saying how Aang was such a powerful bender, so I always felt like being with him was my fate." Katara confessed. It was another thing she'd never told anyone else. She worried they would be like Sokka – and laugh at her for being so superstitious.

"Oh?" Zuko said. He didn't laugh, but he also didn't seem to know what else to say. The silence hung between them. Katara decided to fill it with her real question.

"Does this sound stupid, to put so much faith in something a fortune-teller said?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know." Zuko replied. "I don't know if I believe in fate and destiny the way I used to. It's so changeable, depending on who you ask. It's like Uncle says, destiny is in the eye of the beholder." He finished, satisfied that he'd sounded sage. Katara stifled a smile. Zuko's ability to misquote his Uncle was endless. Jokes, provebs and phrases always came out mangled when he tried to say them again later.

"That's beauty, Zuko." She corrected.

"What?" he asked.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's the phrase."

"Look, whatever – you know what I mean." he huffed, a little frustrated. "Many people can look at the same thing and come away with a different idea, maybe it's like that with fortune-tellers. They look at the bones, or your hand or your tea leaves, or I don't know - your birthday and whatnot, and then spout what they _think_ it means."

"What are you saying? That I could try my luck with another fortune-teller and keep going till I find a future a like." Katara joked.

"Just seems like you may as well." Zuko said. "If you are going to shape your whole life around what some random person says they see in your future, may as well choose a future you like."

She couldn't argue with that logic.

-o-

She didn't like the look of the palm-reader. She didn't want to hear about fake happy endings. There was an ancient-looking woman who was reading tea-leaves down a little side-street near Iroh's place. She caught Katara's eye instantly. Something in her warm, kind eyes reminded Katara of her Gran-Gran. She would do.

"Can I do a reading for the happy couple?" the old woman asked cheerfully as they approached. Katara and Zuko sprang a little further apart from each other. Easy mistake to make, they had been walking rather close together.

"We aren't together." They both said quickly, at the same time. The old woman nodded, an amused smile on her lips.

"So two separate readings, then?" She asked pleasantly.

"No, just a reading for me thanks." Katara said, stepping forward.

"I'll wait for you over there." Zuko said with a nod towards the street corner.

"Waiting a long time, eh dearie?" The woman said pleasantly. Zuko made a worried face.

"Why? How long will this take?" Katara asked quickly, as the woman led her into the tent.

"As long as you need." The woman replied. Katara cast a backwards glance at Zuko, before she took a step after the old woman.

The old woman sat on some cushions near the back and poured out two cups of tea and handed one to Katara. The smell that wafted out of her cup was a sweet and heady mix. She hadn't ever smelt anything like it before. The woman instructed her to swirl it three times before drinking it in one gulp and Katara did so.

The drink was still whirling inside her as it tumbled own her throat. She could feel the oddest sensation churning sensation in her stomach. She clutched her knees to steady herself. What was in this tea?

"We can learn many things from the tea but what we learn depends on our questions. What would you like to know dearie?" the woman asked kindly.

"I don't really have a question. Just tell me what to do - I'm stuck." Katara confessed, completely honestly. Her eyes widened in surprise at her own honesty. Stuck was exactly right. It was how she felt. She'd never put it into words so succinctly before.

The old woman's face was curious. She tilted her head to the side and asked "Why are you stuck dearie?"

"2 years ago, I chose a boy because I thought I had to; I thought it was destiny... but it's not like how I thought it would be. I feel like I'm stuck in a life I don't want and it's making me into a person I don't like. I feel like a shadow of the person I used to be." She leaned back, a little aghast. She had just confessed her deepest worry to a veritable stranger. Katara thought of the girl she'd been, such a fire-cracker. So much passion and energy, desperately trying to fight every injustice she came across. How did that girl get so far away? How had an airbender clipped her wings so thoroughly. It felt like nothing in the world could have stopped her from blurting out "Did I make the right choice? Is Aang right for me?" She asked with dismay. She'd finally said it out loud.

"You'll be able to tell me. Look deep into your cup and tell me what you see." The old woman urged gently. Katara looked down, but found she couldn't focus. Her tea cup was blurring in front of her. She looked back up and saw the whole world was spinning and tilting wildly. She lurched forward towards the old woman. The old woman's face swam before her as her vision failed.

"What's happening?" Katara asked, scared.

"It's alright dearie, don't be afraid." She said gently, "Try to remember that sometimes the road not taken can make all the difference." Katara looked at her in confusion, and clasped her teacup tighter. She was trying to anchor herself to something real and solid, to help her fight the dizzy feeling that was overtaking her, but the feeling was overwhelming. She couldn't help feeling like her whole world was slipping away. She felt like she was falling through her teacup into a vast and empty space.

Then there was darkness.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Small authors notes:

So Katara is a tiny human expresso in this chapter - so bitter. but this is just because she has to live in Bryke's smelly canon. However one aspect of Bryke's smelly canon I completely reject is just everyone faffing off and leaving poor Zuko to 'fix' the Fire Nation all on his own. Kid is a 16/17 year old drama llama who has suffered sever childhood trauma - he's not even old enough to have his driver's license in Aus, why on earth is he abandoned and left in charge of a country. So Uncle and Toph still live with him - because that's my head canon and I'm sticking to it.


	2. Chapter 2

Katara awoke to the sound of waves crashing on a beach. She felt the warm sun on her face and a gentle breeze wafting over her. She was lying on some cushions, on her side, and they seemed real enough. Her left hand was clasped around a teacup. That too seemed real, though that was less comforting.

So it hadn't been a dream.

She opened one eye, then another. She saw a crystal blue sky above her. There were big palm trees casting a shadows into the courtyard. Someone had set up a tea-table in the half-shade. Schematics about drinking fountains and town plans lay in front of her, Sokka's messy handwriting was in the margins. The ink was still fresh, so he must be somewhere around. Katara looked around and saw the charming house and the garden courtyard she remembered so well. Zuko's beach house.

How on earth did she get to the Fire Nation?

She stood up and started walking towards the house in confusion, looking for Sokka. His hand-writing meant he had to be close by. She stepped onto the verandah and into the blessedly cool shade, calling out "Sokka," softly.

"Just a minute Katara." he replied from a room further down the hall. She heard his footsteps approach. He turned the corner, arms full of plans and folders, and did an almost comical double-take, while yelling "AAAARRGH" in surprise. He dropped all his papers and stared at her aghast.

Katara had made a similar, horrified noise upon seeing him. He was taller, wider and had an actual **hairy** beard. He looked so much older, and so much more like their dad that when she'd last seen him only a few hours ago.

"Katara? What the hell happened to you?" He asked, his eyes wide in confusion as he looked her up and down. Katara didn't think there was anything that seriously wrong with her, to warrant the horrified look on his face and his aghast tone. She turned quickly and walked into the house, to the wall where she knew the big mirror was. Sokka followed, spluttering in confusion. Katara stopped in front of the mirror and saw her 16 year old self looking back at her. She was wearing her same blue dress that she'd been wearing at the fortune-tellers. She was the same – he was the one who was different.

"What happened to me? What happened to you? Why are you...old?" She asked equally shocked and confused.

"Why am I old? Why are you young? You look like you're 14 again!" Sokka asked, staring at her like she was the crazy one.

"I'm actually 16." Katara said, a bit offend that he would think she was so young. "Besides you look like your 40!"

Now it was Sokka's turn to make an offended noise. "What the hell! I'm only 21!" he said, indignant. Katara looked at him more closely. It was true, she'd misjudged him. His face was unlined and as cheerful as she remembered, only his nose and cheekbones were a little more chiselled. He probably was in his early twenties.

"Sorry. It's the beard." She said by way of an apology. "It really ages you," She felt compelled to add. It was her duty as a sister.

Sokka huffed and crossed his arms, "Well young one, I really need to talk to 19-year-old Katara... So baby, baby sister, can you just undo whatever waterbending, spirity mumbojumbo you did and _poof_ get my actual sister back." he said.

"I can't" Katara said, slowly a sinking feeling in her heart. "I don't know how." Suddenly she felt very small and lost and so far from home.

"No, seriously Katara, this is a really weird joke." He said in a warning tone.

"It's not a joke!" she said, as she felt a stinging behind her eyes. "I went to a fortune-teller and fell through her teacup and woke up here, and you're old now and I don't know what's happening."

Old Sokka looked at her warily, and started backing away from her really quickly. He poked his head around the corner and yelled "Oi! Suki, Toph – Can you get in here a sec!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Huh? Weird – She's not lying." Toph said after Katara had relayed her story, despite much snorting, derision and cross-examination from the peanut gallery. Toph of the future had grown a little, though she was still petite. The biggest difference was that she'd gotten quite curvy. Her wicked grin and truth-sensing ability remained unchanged though. Future Suki maintained her poise and composure. She had sat on the edge of one of the chairs, watching Katara studiously through her clever purple eyes. Her face was mostly impassive, yet attentive, with occasional flashes of concern.

"You believe me now?" Katara huffed, .

"Okay – lets say I believe you – how do we undo this and age you back up?" Sokka asked, getting straight to the point.

"I'd really prefer to age everyone down, if it's all the same for you." Katara retorted, she didn't want to miss out on three more years of her life.

"That's not what we need to do." Suki said slowly, and every pair of eyes rounded on her. " Haven't you lot ever listened to Aang?" Suki asked. There was an awkward silence. "Weren't you listening to her?" Suki continued, sounding slightly frustrated, while gesturing at Katara. "This isn't our Katara. She comes from a totally different world. She was in a Peace-ceremony in Omashu!" Suki said emphatically, like that was the end of her point. She was greeted with blank looks. "We haven't been to the one there yet..." Suki elaborated. Everyone was still looking at Suki blankly, not quite grasping the significance. "If this Katara is from our past, her past should match up with ours. But her past sounds different...This isn't just a younger version of our Katara. This Katara is from some totally other timeline, like another universe..." She finished.

"There are other universes?" Sokka asked, slowly.

"C'mon dude, seriously. Aang was talking about the possibility of different universes just last week..." Suki said fondly.

"So what are you saying? She's a bizzaro Katara from another evil universe, sent here to kill us all?"Sokka supplied, dramatically. "Oh no! She could be from the universe where food eats people!"

"Well, I mean she doesn't seem evil or anything. And I don't think a universe where food eats people exists, but yeah, I think it's likely she's from a different universe." Suki said evenly.

"Are you evil?" Toph asked, rounding on Katara.

"What? No!" Katara said, insulted.

Toph nodded at Sokka and Suki saying "It checks out."

"So, if she's a Bizarro, non-evil Katara, what happened to our Katara?" Sokka asked, sounding worried.

"She's probably in the Bizarro world. They may have switched places. That'd be my guess." Suki said as she looked closely at Katara.

"Well I think we've got to focus on that then. Let's try and get you to switch back baby, baby, baby sister." Sokka said, and clapped his hands together and the prospect of a puzzle. He stroked his chin. "So let me get this straight – an old lady gave you a tea – you felt like you were falling into your cup, and you woke up here?" he asked, sceptical.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what happened." Katara nodded. It sounded silly when Sokka said it.

"Well, perhaps if we just give you the same tea, in the same cup, at the same table, you'll switch back." Sokka suggested.

It seemed as good a plan as any.

0o0o0o00o0o0o0

Three different blends of tea later, and Katara had stayed stubbornly the same. Sokka was trying to blend the different teas to match her description, but was getting frustrated. They'd been asking her lots of questions about "Bizarro world" and what had happened in before she went to see a fortune-teller. They hadn't seemed very impressed with her answers. She told them about how angry she'd been at Aang, then Toph, how Zuko found her and her decision to see a fortune-teller. Oddly the thing they'd gotten hung up on was the fact that she was dating Aang, not the fact that alternative universes were evidently a thing. Other universes were hand-waved with a shrug and Sokka saying "Meh, weird stuff happens to us a lot."

They'd all groaned "Eeeeeewww" when she'd told them about kissing Aang at the first peace-festival in Ba Sing Se, when he'd been 12. (But they had _asked._ They just couldn't get their heads around how Katara had even been with Aang). Even Suki had made a grossed out face, and Katara had always thought Suki would be on her side. She got a bit miffed at their judgemental faces.

"We're not trying to be judgemental, but _c'mon Katara._ He hadn't even hit puberty then!" Suki said, still sounding a little judgemental.

"Yeah, that sounds really gross. No one wanted to sleep with 12 year old Aang." Sokka supplied. She glared at him, and he held his hands up saying. "Sorry. No judgement." However, then he turned and stage-whispered to Suki "I still have some judgement."

"We weren't sleeping together... jeez, what do you take me for!" Katara had retorted, feeling defensive.

"A pervert who makes out with pre-pubesent boys." Toph said snidely and Sokka gave her a sneaky high five. Katara got huffy and demanded the next tea blend – the sooner she could escape this conversation and get back to her own reality the better.

Suki seemed to take pity on her and moved the conversation away from perverts. She asked what she and Sokka were getting up to in the alternative universe, and Katara tried to answer as best she could, but she didn't have many details.

"So you don't get to see us that much, then" Suki observed, as she sipped her tea.

"Not as much and I'd like." Katara answered flatly.

"Okay, do me -what am I up to in freaky-land?" Toph asked. Katara's answers were a little sketchy here, though she knew more about Toph's plan for a cross-bending school, so she could talk about that. Toph nodded along, seeming satisfied. She'd done something similar in this universe, a few years ago. "So is my dad bank-rolling this?" Toph asked mildly.

"Err, I'm not sure where the money's coming from. Probably Iroh though. It wouldn't be your dad." Katara said with certainty.

"Does my dad still want me to expand his merchant empire instead?" She asked casually.

"Err, no. You're still avoiding your parents...a bit." Katara said gently.

Toph sat back, "Huh? That's a bummer for bizarro Me, eh?" she said with a shrug. " Guess bizarro you and bizarro Zuko never stepped in there." Toph said, with a casual wave in Katara's direction.

"What do you mean?" Katara asked.

"Well our Katara and Zuko helped me, you know...work through some stuff with my parents." Toph said simply. "Do you know anything else about bizarro me? Am I dating Lee yet?"

Katara had no idea who 'Lee' was, so she felt it was safe to assume no was the answer to that question. But she hadn't sounded certain. She felt three pairs of eyes looking at her quizzically.

"Wow, we really don't hang out that much in freaky-universe, do we?" Toph observed.

"I've been busy with Aang." Katara said, but that made Toph and Sokka hide smiles behind their hands. Suki gave them both a stern look.

"Don't laugh guys, I think it would have been nice for Aang to have someone around to help him track down all the other Airbenders. It's a big job." Suki said in her defence. It was kind of her to try. Katara always knew she could count on Suki to have her back. That was why she felt so bad about having to contradict her.

"We actually haven't found the other Airbenders yet." If they had, things might have been different. If there were other Airbenders in her world, Katara wouldn't feel the terrible burden of having to be Aang's whole family; to love him enough to replace all his people.

Sokka handed her a small cup with his tenth attempt at the tea. She swirled and sipped, and mentally willed herself to disappear from this uncomfortable situation. Sadly for her, nothing changed. She let out a frustrated sigh. Sokka had been watching her with keen interest, but upon this latest failure, he threw his hands up, saying "bugger it, baby baby sister – I don't know what a 'sweet and heady' tea would even be! Can't you tell me anything useful?" grumpily.

"Sorry, ancient, ancient Sokka! I wasn't expecting to be sent to the universe where you're a jerk." Katara shot back.

"Nah, it sounds like everyone in your universe is the jerk." Sokka said, sullenly.

"Well, Zuko'll be home soon. He's always been better at blending teas." Suki cut in, trying to keep the peace.

"Suki, I'd prefer to get this sorted **before** he gets home." Sokka said urgently, with a quick glance over his shoulder. He lowered his voice even further before saying"Do you really want to be the person who has to say to him - _Hey, welcome back buddy – hope you had a real_ _calming_ _breakfast with your Uncle, because we've had such a crazy morning here. Your girlfriend has shrunk, and reverted to her much, much younger self and also is from a bizarro world where she is dating bald kid_." Sokka finished dramatically. Suki inhaled sharply.

"Man, he is going to flip his shit!" Toph observed cheerfully, but she didn't seem worried about it. Sokka and Suki, both looked at her in askance. "What? It's always entertaining when he freaks out." She said with a bit smile.

"Toph, can you at least try to pretend you're concerned." Suki said.

"Why worry? Our Katara is tough. She can take care of herself." Toph said confidently, and the others nodded in agreement. "She's probably whipping freaky-land into shape right now. Aang arrives tomorrow and he's good with this spirity-alternate-universe-mumbo-jumbo. He'll fix it in an airbender minute. We'll get our Katara back, and freaky Katara can go back to her lame world and we're golden. In the meantime, hearing Zuko freak out about freak-land is going to be fun." Toph said, like it was the simplest thing.

Suki however, did not share Toph's sanguine view. "How about I go over to Iroh's place and tell him for you honey. I'll break the news tactfully and I'll get them both to come here. Iroh knows heaps about the spirit world. He'd be good with... _this sort of thing._ " Suki said, as she waved in Katara's general direction.

Sokka, grateful for having her take the Zuko-telling burden, smiled at her and said "You're the best!" Suki got up, laced up her sandals and gave Sokka a quick kiss. At door she turned back to them and pointed at Toph and Sokka, saying "Be nice to our guest!" in a warning tone. Katara was sorry to see her go. From the sounds of things, she was the only sensible one on this entire island.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I'm going out with Zuko in this universe?" Katara asked, turning to Sokka as soon as Suki left. She felt so curious about other Katara's life. She felt a flutter in her stomach. She hadn't felt those butterfly feelings for a long time. They surprised her now. It was almost like she was...a little excited.

"Yeah, since like forever." Toph said.

"No, since a few months after his coronation, so like five years." Sokka said, then looked up as if he was doing some sums in his head."Yeah, definitely around five years" he concluded.

"This is why your freaky-world is so freaky. You two are such a package-deal, I just can't imagine you with Aang." Toph said,

"Yeah! If I were a girl, I'd shag Zuko before Aang any day... Like I'd still do Aang after a few beers, but I'd do Zuko stone-cold-sober." Sokka threw in, like it was a completely normal thing to say. Both Katara and Toph turned to make **a face** at him.

"Literally no one asked about your man crush on Zuko." Toph said after a moment.

"Hey, don't judge me Toph, judge her" Sokka said, while pointing at Katara. "She kissed a prepubescent 12-year-old."

"Hey don't judge me!" Katara said and gave him a light whack.

"I dunno little Katara. You did sleep with Aang and that seems to make him an arsehole in your world." Toph said dryily.

"We haven't even slept together yet, and Aang's not an arsehole." Katara snapped, defensively.

" You were the one tell us about how he forgot you before a festival... that is a **dick move** at least." Toph replied.

"I would kick freaky-Aang's arse for how he treats you, to be honest." Sokka said in agreement. He looked at her quizzically, before asking "Why doesn't your me, Bizarre me, do that?" honestly sounding concerned.

"Freaky-universe Sokka is probably also an arsehole." Toph said quickly. Sokka shot her an offended glance.

"I don't see you that much." Katara spoke out in defence of her Sokka. The more she thought about Sokka back home, the more she wondered. He'd never been overjoyed exactly, for her and Aang – and he was the closest person to both of them in the whole world.

"You always go on about how we give you the oogies, and you tease us and say we're a gross couple – but I don't know – it always seemed like you were joking." Katara said uncertainly. She'd always dismissed it as joking, in the past, when Sokka had insinuated that she could do better.

Sokka nodded at that, then asked "What does Dad say?"

"Not much. He's ...look...he thinks it's good that Aang has someone to take care of him." Katara guessed. She was trying to remember if she'd ever had a conversation with Hakoda about Aang, aside from that one on the ship when Aang had run away, during the war.

"Right...our dad would definitely care about Aang's happiness more than your own." Sokka said sarcastically. "Makes sense."

"Well, it's not like Dad in this stupid universe will be over-joyed that this Katara is dating a firebender!" Katara yelled angrily, sick of their judgement and feeling like they were ganging up on her. It was something she had told herself after seeing Zuko kiss Mai. She told herself that it would have never worked out between them anyway, because there was no way her tribe would have ever accepted Zuko – no way her Dad could accept her dating a firebender. It had made her feel less upset at the time.

"Our Dad's cool with it." Sokka said with a shrug, puncturing that illusion with ease. "He's had a soft spot for Zuko since the Boiling Rock." There was a moment of silence, before he added "The one who wasn't pleased was Gran-Gran, at the very start, but she got her revenge."

Toph snorted with laughter, "Oh man, I remember that. She fed him so many salty-shark balls as some kind of obscure water-tribe punishment." Toph chuckled.

"That happened in my universe as well." Katara shared quietly.

Sokka turned and gave her a smile, saying "I'm glad to hear it's not all bad! At least Gran-Gran is still cool in your universe." He said as he got up, going into the house to pick up the papers he'd dropped much earlier that morning when Katara had startled him so badly. They'd lain forgotten until now. Katara bent over to help him.

"What are all these anyway?" She asked, as she held various designs up to the light.

"It's the next stage of your...the other Katara's sanitation project...our sanitation project I guess. I've been designing fountains, plumbing and sewage works for you." he said, sounding a bit taken aback that Katara didn't know about her own project. "Our Katara has been working on ensuring everyone in the world has access to clean water, no matter when they live...she's quite passionate about it. I'm helping." he added, his voice sounding proud.

"We always were a good team." Katara observed, smiling at him – her big, old, currently bearded brother.

"You know how it is. You handle the big ideas, the bending and the emotional and inspiring speeches, and I handle all the practical things and logistics...and _do all the actual work_ " he said with a feigned put-upon sigh, but he was smiling back at her.

Just then Toph came around the corner, an excited look on her face. "Zuko's back!" she said happily.

"Already? Is Suki with him?" Sokka asked, looking out the window. He wasn't in view yet. Toph was relying on her earth-sense. She thought for a moment.

"Nope, he's on his own. He's coming through the mountain path. They probably _just_ missed each other." She said.

"Oh man." Sokka said, and rubbed his hairy beard.

"Looks like you'll have to tell him his girlfriend's de-aged and turned into a pervert after all." Toph piped up after a moment. Then her eyes went wide "...or I could tell him." She suggested cheerfully.

Sokka thought for a moment and then firmly said "I'll tell him." as he walked out the door.

Just then Zuko came around the corner and Katara gasped audibly at how different he looked. She'd never seem him look so healthy and happy...ever. It made such a difference. He was well-muscled instead of thin. There was a soft smile on his face, instead of a worried frown. His shaggy black hair was shorter, wafting in the breeze, rather than pulled back severely. He was taller, _again_ , or maybe he was just holding himself higher. There was an easy confidence about the way he carried himself, all long, strong limbs and sun-tanned skin. Katara felt her breath catch in her throat, and her pulse quicken. She'd always found Zuko handsome, but this universe's Zuko was off-the-charts, ridiculously good-looking.

He looked up and saw Sokka coming towards him, and smiled and waved in greeting. Sokka rushed over. Katara could see very emphatic gestures from Sokka, Zuko's smile fell abruptly and was replaced with a confused frown, then wide-eyed worry. Katara could only hear fragments of Sokka's explanation. "This thing happened... a universe where food eats people...no really...weird alternative universes...maybe a couple of years behind our universe because people are younger there... We're pretty sure it's not an evil doppelganger situation... don't freak out but..."

"IS KATARA OKAY!?" Zuko suddenly yelled, probably loud enough to be heard the next town over. He turned and sprinted towards the door at full pelt, flung it open and burst into the room. Suddenly they were face to face. Future Zuko just stared at her, his gold eyes full of distress and bewilderment. He regarded her for a long moment, before just as abruptly as he entered, he turned back to Sokka in the courtyard.

There was more frantic gesturing now, as Zuko shouted every variation on _the fuck_ possible. "What the fuck? What the actual fuck? Why the fuck? How the fuck? When the fuck? I've only been gone for two hours. What the fuck happened this morning? Who the fuck is that?"

Sokka had been nodding along to the barrage of questions and making noises of agreement about the general weirdness of everything, but here he slipped in "We think it's still Katara. But Katara from another universe." he explained, before looking over his shoulder at Katara as she came out into the courtyard. "Oh no, she looks pissed."

Katara had strode into the courtyard, hands on her hips. Toph trailing behind her. This was an uncomfortable, weird and perplexing situation for everyone, but she didn't think it warranted this level of freaking out and swearing about her. Sure Sokka had shrieked when he first saw her, but then he'd been helpful and cooperative. This universe's Zuko showed no signs of calming down and it was annoying Katara. One of the only things that was stopping her from completely freaking out herself was how calm the older Sokka, Suki and Toph had been.

"In my universe, we normally say hello first." She said sharply.

The boys turned and looked and her, and Sokka urged "Okay buddy, one of us has to stop swearing and say hi to Alternate Universe Katara." in a stage whisper.

"Before her clone army invades and kills us all." Toph chimed in.

"She's got a clone army?" Zuko turned to ask Sokka.

"I do not have a clone army!" Katara said, indignant.

Future Zuko turned back to her, and looked her directly in the eye. "Where's Katara?" he asked slowly, a dangerous edge to his tone.

"I'm Katara!" Katara fired back.

"No. You're not my Katara. Where is she?" He was getting impatient, angry.

"Yeah, well you're not my usual Zuko, but I'm not freaking out at you, am I?" She responded crossly. Sure, she understood he was worried, but that was no reason for him to be so hostile to her. She hadn't asked to be dropped into this universe.

"oh goodie! The evil doppelganger's not freaking out, so every thing's fine." he said sarcastically.

"I'm not an evil doppelganger! Maybe you lot are the evil doppelgangers!" Katara pointed at them. Toph and Sokka glanced at eachother, as if to check for stray evilness.

Zuko turned away from her, frustrated. "I don't freaking believe this... What is even happening?" he said mostly to himself, while running his hands through his hair somewhat violently.

"I'll see if I can figure that out Nephew." Iroh's voice puffed from the door. He was a bit red in the face and out of breath, Suki hovering behind him. They'd probably heard Zuko shouting all the way from Iroh's house.

"Young lady, could you tell me what happened?" Iroh asked wheezily, and Katara groaned inwardly. Another person to explain herself to. "Only tell me in a little moment, I think I really need a sit down...Some tea would be nice Zuko" Iroh continued with a wry grin towards his nephew.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

A little while later, they were sitting around the tea-table while Katara retold her story (she only told it from the day of the Omashu – She'd learnt her lesson from last time). Nearly everyone was sitting and listening, except for Zuko, who was pacing around the courtyard frequently, like a grumpy tigerdillo. Iroh listened with fascination to her tale, and seemingly without judgement at all, even with the frequent, disparaging interjections from Toph about how everyone in her universe was an arsehole.

"This is is astounding. Suki, clever girl! I do believe you are correct. This Katara is from another universe." Iroh smiled at Suki as he said this.

"I can't believe you actually believe her." Zuko snorted from where he was currently pacing, behind his uncle.

"There are more things in the spirit-world and the earth, than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Zuko." Iroh observed mildly, before lowering his voice seriously. "You should know, many years ago the spirits granted me visions of the future - of different outcomes for the great war. I was able to visit with the people in those other futures, much like our young friend is visiting us here."

"Really?" Zuko asked, coming to sit beside his Uncle, clearly interested, despite himself.

Uncle turned to him and said very quietly "One day, when you are very old man, you may meet a rather impertinent traveller, who will remind you a great deal of your dear old Uncle. He may ask you some questions..." he let that hang in the air for a moment. "Be kind to him, be honest with him...for he only ever wants to help you." Iroh laid his hand very gently over Zuko's as he said this. Zuko nodded slowly and held his uncle's gaze for a long, solemn moment.

"You know what may help me understand the nature of this – lemon cakes!" Uncle Iroh said brightly, breaking the solemn moment. "Zuko, will you get some?"

"How will lemon cakes help?" Katara asked in confusion, after Zuko had gotten up.

"They wont." Iroh said with a downright mischievous grin for such and old, wise man. "I just really feel like one." Katara had always liked Iroh. "Besides, I think he needs a moment." Iroh said, with a quick nod after his nephew, before holding out his hands to her. "If you'll permit me" he asked, gesturing for Katara to place her hands in his. He held her hands, thinking, for what seemed like an interminably long period. The longer it went on, the more nervous Katara became.

"Ah, interesting... The spirits are at work here." Iroh remarked pleasantly after the ridiculously long moment.

"What does that mean?" Zuko asked as he came back, placing some lemon cakes in front of his Uncle, however he did not sit back down.

"Patience, Zuko" Iroh said, as he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. "Ahh, yes...mmm interesting..." he said benignly.

"What?" Katara asked, still feeling anxious.

"Katara from our world is completely fine." Iroh said first, and everyone visibly sighed with relief, none more loudly than Zuko, who sat back down, leaning his head on his hand. "This young woman is just momentarily visiting us. Soon she will return to her home, and our Katara will return to us." he explained.

"How long will it take?" Sokka asked.

"A few days I would guess." Iroh said.

"A few DAYS!?" Zuko exploded next to him.

"It is only a short visit." Iroh said.

"A few days is **not a short visit** Uncle! _'oh I just popped over for a quick cup of tea'_ is a short visit!" Zuko huffed crossly.

"Zuko, getting angry will not bring our Katara back any faster." Iroh said sternly. "No, there is a force at work here. It does not appear to want to harm any of us. I think that, like my younger self gained wisdom from the universes I visited, - this Katara must need to learn something from this world. When she knows it, she'll be able to return."

"What does it want her to know?" Zuko asked his Uncle quickly, before rounding towards Katara "What do you need to know?" he asked urgently.

"I don't know what I need to know." Katara huffed, a little exasperated with him.

"Mmmmhh, well perhaps we can tell you of our universe, and you can see where the differences are. Wisdom can often come from seeing what others are doing differently." Iroh suggested, while he poured a fresh cup of tea for everyone. "Besides, conversation with a visitor from another universe is one of life's truly rare delights."

o0o0o0o0o0o

She'd asked about Aang first, because it did seem a bit weird to her, that he wasn't here when everyone else was. She was worried that not dating Aang in this universe somehow meant that he was the one excluded now. The others assured her that Aang was coming tomorrow, but he was spending the first week of the holidays getting to know Ty Lee's family, the next island over. Ty Lee had been the first untrained bender Aang had found, and they'd been practically inseparable since he started training her. This year they had been fixing up the western Air Temple and teaching some other untrained benders there.

3 years in the future and Aang had found other airbenders? It made Katara's heart soar with hope. Katara was eager to know about how Aang had found the new airbenders. This was something useful she could take back to her own universe, where Aang's loneliness and sadness about being the last of his kind was palpable.

The others explained that he'd gone to see Guru Pathik again, not long after the war had ended. There he'd had vision of other airbenders, untrained, but still out in the world. Ty Lee had been the only one he had recognised, so he'd started with training her. Ty Lee had been delighted when Aang told her. Suki said she'd always wanted to stand out, but Zuko thought she was also glad that she didn't feel so freakish any more, now that she knew why she could do all the weird things she'd been able to do as a kid.

Having a big holiday at the beach house every year had actually been Aang's idea in this universe. He didn't want to focus so much on his Avatar duties, and restoring the airbenders that he ended up neglecting his friends. He always made an effort to see them during the year, but since the end of the war – he'd made a point of getting everyone to the beach house in the summer around the anniversary of Sozin's comet.

Toph started laughing as she retold how Aang just started inviting everyone to the house, like he owned the place and Zuko's confusion about getting an invitation to his own house that first year. "You just kept saying _'But it's my own house? Can he just invite me to my own house?'_ Toph said, doing a decent mimic of Zuko's voice. Sokka pointed out that Zuko hadn't been complaining when Aang gave him all his presents. Apparently Aang got lots of tributes for being the Avatar, but because Air-nomads aren't into material possessions, he'd started _re-gifting_ everything to his friends during these beach holidays. Aang told them it was to say thank you, for everything they'd done for him, and to share the glory a bit. Toph thought it was just so he could unload all the shit he didn't want.

Katara absorbed all this wordlessly. This Aang, he just sounded so different from the Aang she knew, she couldn't quite get the picture to form in her mind. This universe's Aang really seemed to appreciate these people. He cared for them, he listened to them, he took time away from the temples especially to see them – not just because his duties brought him nearby. Katara thought Aang would never put anything above the Airbenders and their temples, or that he would ever worry about neglecting his friends.

Sokka and Suki were living in the newly named Republic City, (formerly Two Rivers colony). It was a free and independent city, controlled by neither the Earth King or Zuko. It was governed by a group with a representative from each nation, of which Sokka was the youngest (Piandao was the oldest, and Sokka spoke about at length about how cool working with him was, how they sparred with their swords after work sometimes and how awesome that was... until Toph started teasing him about his man-crush on Piandao.) Suki was captain of the peace keeping force in the city. The Katara from this universe visited them with Zuko frequently.

Their Katara had gotten impassioned about the squalor in the eastern part of the city. The city had grown so rapidly, and a slum had formed in the eastern sector. She installed many drinking fountains there, creating springs with her bending, to give those citizens access to fresh water. The very last fountain she'd created had been the biggest, shaped as an enormous statue of herself. The way Suki was talking gave Katara the impression that this world's Katara had been gently teased about building an enormous statue of herself – but she'd had the last laugh, obviously. Most of Sokka's designs for the next series of fountains featured statues of Katara.

Toph sometimes lived with them in the city too, when she wasn't visiting her parents or staying with Zuko. She oversaw a cross-bending school. She was excited, because her students were starting to form teams and have competitions that were really similar to earth rumbles. Toph was selling tickets and collecting a tidy profit. The matches were very popular, even if they were currently not permitted inside the city limits– she said with a waggle of her eyebrows at Sokka and Suki.

Suki told Toph that the city had to have bigger priorities than building her a big stadium so that a bunch of dudes could throw rocks at each other, and that she was worried about discrimination against non-benders in the current set-up. Suki and Toph started speaking quite animatedly about this. Katara was fascinated by the friendly banter. Even though they disagreed, there was no hard feelings between Suki and Toph. If Katara had disagreed with Aang, she would have never been able to tell him as directly – not the way Suki told Toph that a sport that only allowed benders couldn't call itself "inclusive" just because it mixed up the bending styles. This Toph was much more grown-up when receiving criticism. She took Suki's words on board with good humour. They were discussing the merits of allowing non-benders who'd been trained in chi-blocking to compete, when Zuko coughed really loudly and said "Look, can you two talk about that another time. I don't think it's helping us get the real Katara back." he said as he pointed at her.

"What about you? You haven't told me anything about yourself." Katara said pertly. Zuko'd been mostly quiet since the others started talking. He'd barely looked at her the whole time and it was starting to bother Katara. She stared him down, but he still didn't look at her. Zuko said he wasn't sure what to say. He was Firelord and trying his best at it. The others interjected here to say how great he was doing, how much he'd turned the Fire-Nation around. He smiled into his cup at their praise, and thanked them softly, but said he couldn't take all the credit. "You helped so much." he said looking directly at her for the first time, with such a softness in his gaze, before catching himself. He looked away quickly, adding "I mean _our_ you. The _real_ Katara." Katara felt a little hurt by the way he kept saying 'the real Katara.'

She asked what the 'Real Katara' had done that was so special.

"Straight after the war, we had big problems; without some of the colonies, we couldn't produce enough food to feed everyone here. My father's factories had destroyed the rivers' ecosystems, so fishing often wasn't an option inland, and the pollution was causing all these illnesses. On top of that we had all these returned soldiers who were unemployed and the capital was so overcrowded, and there was civilian unrest everywhere. On top of that, we had to pay all these reparations to the other nations...

"Okay, that first year was bad – we get it." Toph said, interrupting what Katara assumed was a long list of problems. "Trust me, you _do not want_ to get him started on how crap his first year as Firelord was." Toph stage whispered to Katara. "I was there for it the first time through!"

Zuko glared at her, then continued. "Anyway, Toph was living with me that first year, and she was _totally useless,_ just lazing about my palace and bitching about how her parents didn't understand her."...

"Oi, I made sure none of your staff were going to kill you..."She interjected.

"And it was so annoying, listening to her complain endlessly about her dad, and her mum and how _sad_ her fancy childhood was because she had to wear fancy dresses, and she was always nagging me to take her on life-changing adventures ..." Toph picked up a small biscuit at threw it at him. He reciprocated with his own biscuit, and it was about to erupt into a full on biscuit war at the tea-table – until Iroh pointed out that if they knocked over his prize blend of tea, he would be _disappointed_ in them both.

"Sorry Uncle." they both said in unison, and put down their biscuits.

"You were saying about how the Fire Nation had all these problems." Katara prompted, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Well, yeah – things were bad. But then Katara – the Real Katara – came. She took me around the countryside, when she was cleaning the rivers, and some of those villages were just in a shocking state. Katara just wanted to help people, and she didn't mind that they were Fire Nation. She wanted to fix the rivers, and heal all the sick people and make sure all the villages had access to fresh water, because the polluted water was causing heaps of illness. She was trying to do it all with her bending, but the towns would need a water supply after we left and Sokka suggested fountains, so we converted one of the bigger factories to make pipes for the project..."

"You converted other factories as well. You know all the adjustments I made to the airships' designs -There's that one factory that's making my airships for passenger travel." Sokka interjected, a little boastfully.

"Well, yeah there's that one."

"And you know how I invented the su.."Sokka interjected again.

"Oi, it's my turn. You've all had your go!" Zuko said pointing at Sokka and then Toph. "Anyway, pipes was first. Then the real Katara pointed out that with better sanitation, the towns could support more people, then we realised we could expand terrace farming methods, to make the most of the steep land in the mountains...Anyway, that was a real turning point. People seemed to get used to having me as Firelord, after I went all over the Fire Nation with the Real Katara trying to fix up the towns... They thought it showed I was better than my Dad, at least." he added quietly. He seemed finished, and he gestured for Sokka to have his go.

"So, baby Katara, you haven't heard about all my inventions yet!" Sokka said excitedly.

"No, Sokka! NO. You talking about your inventions is even more boring that Zuko moaning about the woes of the Fire Nation." Toph groaned, but that did not discourage Sokka in the slightest.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sokka talked a lot more. Zuko, Suki and Uncle got up and some point, and brought out some lunch. Zuko didn't come and sit back down, but said he wasn't hungry and was going to have a walk. Meanwhile, Sokka continued talking about his inventions, their projects for Republic City, about their family in this universe, about how they went back to the South Pole every-year for the days of darkness festival and sometimes for the summer fishing season, about what everyone in the tribe was getting up to, how she had convinced Pakku to train the female water-benders, and did lessons on 'southern style' whenever she went back – however because she was the only southern waterbender, Sokka just thought she should name it "Katara style" and be done with it. Bato was sure his baby girls were both benders, and he wanted them both to be well-versed in Katara-style. They'd had an exceptionally large haul of fish last year. Pakku had added a canal network... but eventually even Sokka ran out of things to say.

"Do you feel like you know enough yet?" He asked, after he'd exhausted everything he could think to talk about.

"Well, no, because I am still here." Katara said, pointing out the obvious.

"I don't know what else we can tell you little Katara." Suki said sadly.

"This is hopeless. We should just get Aang to come now and fix this." Zuko called from where he was leaning against the doorway, pointing at Katara. She felt a little startled, because she hadn't even noticed him come back. How long had he been there brooding?

"I already hawked him from your Uncle's place – but he can't make it until tomorrow." Suki said.

"What? Why!" Zuko asked loudly, coming in to the courtyard again.

"Ty Lee's sister wrote back when you were on your walk, and said that they'd gone to ride the giant dolphin-squid near turquoise bay, but had planned to come straight here tomorrow morning."

"I know where that is. I could take one of the steamers and get him." Zuko replied.

"No Aang." Katara heard herself say softly.

"He's only a few islands away. I'd be back with him before dark." Zuko said, as he turned to go.

"No Aang." she felt herself repeat, more firmly. Everybody stopped and looked at her. A long silence stretched out. "I don't want to see Aang right now... okay." she said softly.

"No. That's not okay." Zuko said crossly, coming to stand over her.

"Zuko.." Iroh started to say, but Zuko waved him off. He glared down at her and said "I don't care if you've got problems with Aang in your stupid universe. Big deal! I think we've indulged you enough." he said furiously.

Katara stood up and whirl around to face him angrily. "You've indulged me? - You've done nothing but be rude to me!" she fired back.

"Well I need the real Katara back!" he yelled back, a desperate note in his voice.

"Well what about what I need eh? Your Uncle says I need to learn something here and I can't go home until I do. How can I learn whatever it is with you shouting at me and stomping about and being so mean!" She gave him a big poke in the chest and he took a step back.

"I'm not being mean" he said defensively.

"You called me an evil doppelganger this morning, you wont even look me in the eye, you've been shouting at me and you're talking about me like **I'm not even real**." Katara listed on her fingers. "You know what – whatever it is I have to find out, I obviously can't learn around you!" she huffed before turning on her heels and stomping off.

o0o0o0o0o0o0

She stomped through the lush greenery behind the beach house, thwacking bushes as she went. Stupid, good-looking Zuko. He was really getting under her skin; the way he'd barely make eye-contact with her or spoke to her. If the others hadn't been there – he would have probably just outright ignored her. He was being so rude! The way he shouted at her – like it was all her fault that his oh-so-precious- _real_ -Katara had vanished. She hated the way he always made sure to say "the real Katara". What was she then? Just a random bit of driftwood? As if she needed his constant reminders that this wasn't her world and she didn't belong here.

She knew she didn't belong. She knew this was real Katara's world.

It may have only been three years in the future, but it felt like an entirely different planet. Real Katara was stupidly lucky. She was living the life Katara had always wanted. She was changing the world for the better. She wasn't ever left out of anything. She'd kept her inner fire, that energy that drove her to say things like _I'll never turn my back on people who need me_ and mean them _._

She never had to chose between her boyfriend's needs and what she really wanted to do herself. She and Aang had never dated in this universe. Real Katara never had to carry the burden of having to be **everything** to Aang, all by herself. This Aang had found other airbenders. This Aang had reached out to his other friends. Their group had stayed together. At home, every one in the Gaang was so fractured. She felt like they had all split off in different directions. They didn't make time for each other in her universe – not the way they did here. They'd never had a big summer reunion holiday, much less made it an annual thing.

Everyone seemed so happy here. Even when they were arguing and teasing each other, there were no hard, brittle edges hidden beneath the surface. And they way they talked about their Katara made something inside her ache. Oh, how they loved "real Katara". They loved her so much. She could hear it when they spoke.

Katara was jealous – and she knew it was nuts to be jealous of herself, but there it was. In her heart if hearts, she knew that she liked this world much better than her own. But the people here, they just wanted her gone and their real "Katara back". She wasn't ready to be sent back to her own world, where everything was messed up and she felt lost and alone.

She'd walked through the forest to the little beach around the corner from the house and sat down, running her fingers through the sand and feeling sorry for herself. She knew she couldn't stay, but she also knew she wasn't ready to see Aang. If he was so happy and wonderful in this world, did that mean the problem was her? Did she make him the way he was in her universe?

It wasn't that Aang was bad, or mean or unkind...he was just thoughtless, he didn't see or think about consequences for other people. He was too focused on what he wanted – but what he wanted shifted with the breeze. She'd always tried to give him what he wanted, including herself. She thought it would help him. But always getting his own way hadn't helped him at all. Gentle nudges hadn't pushed him in the right direction.

She wasn't sure how long she sat like that, lost in thought. She didn't even hear Zuko walking up sometime later."Hey." Zuko said from behind her, standing a little way off.

"Hey." Katara sniffed, while shifting her body away. She didn't want to talk to this Zuko now. She was sure he was about to make her feel worse.

"Look, I just wanted to say sorry. I was a jerk before." He said.

"Yeah, you were." Katara snorted. She knew she was being immature, when he'd taken the first step and apologised. She heard him huff, and mutter something like 'frozen hell, you really are 16' under his breath.

There was a long moment before he took a step closer." Uncle says that you probably have many burdens….I'm sorry if I belittled them, and I'm also sorry for shouting at you. That wasn't cool...also I'm sorry for breaking your bizarre world tea-cup." he added a little shamefaced.

"Wait, that tea-cup wasn't mine." Katara said quickly.

"oh, well then, err pass on my apologies." He said.

"How did you even break it?" Katara couldn't help but ask.

"I was trying to open a portal to your lame universe... It did not work." he explained, with a hopeless sort of shrug.

Katara wasn't sure how to say that she forgave him; that she wasn't really angry at him, she was mostly angry at herself. She settled for nodding and patting the sand beside her and motioning for him to sit down. He sat next to her in silence for a few moments, and they watched the waves crash on the white sand of the beach. The water was a clear and brilliant blue here, stretching out endlessly in front of her. Behind her was the lush rainforest, teeming with life and echoing with birdsongs.

She sighed. She'd forgotten how beautiful the Fire Nation out be.

After a long moment, Zuko cleared his throat " Listen, err little Katara..." he said, using the name Suki had taken to calling her. It was much nicer than freak-world Katara or Bizarro Katara at least. "I get that you're angry at your lame universe's Aang...but our Aang is actually really nice. He's a great guy, you know."

"Maybe your Aang is _so great,_ but my Aang is still... " She interjected, but then couldn't even finish her own thought. She'd been thinking about this just before Zuko'd got here. What was her Aang really? He loved her, she knew, but the same way a kid loves desserts. He only wanted the sweet parts of her. Whenever she was angry, he avoided her, or he treated her like she was a book that he could write some temple wisdom in. He never _heard_ her. She was a book that entertained him sometimes, but one that he could put down and walk away from, when he got bored or he got tired.

"He's what? Young? Immature? Flighty? Gassy?" Zuko started guessing.

"He's not gassy!" Katara snapped. They were quiet for a moment before she confessed softly "I'm not ready to go back."

"But what about me and the real Katara?...We were going to go the glowy cave thing she likes tonight! We had a date!" Zuko said quickly.

She felt her lip curl up and a lump form in her throat. There it was, the ghost of the "Real Katara" again, this girl she wanted to be so badly.

" ...Sorry. You are real too – you're just...you're not my Katara." He corrected, seeing that she was getting upset. She nodded. They were quiet again for a moment. "I mean you look like her, and sound like her from when she was 16, but that was three years ago... and this is just **so weird!** " He flopped back on the sand dramatically, covering his face with his large hands, sounding so frustrated and anxious. She felt sorry for him then. This must have been so hard for him, seeing the person he loved changed into her younger self, with no memory of her relationship with him. All his harshness earlier, it was just because he loved his Katara.

"Look, she'll be fine, your Katara... No one in my universe would hurt her. She's okay. Besides, everyone says she's so tough." Katara said kindly, trying to reassure him.

"I know she can take car of herself, but..." he said, taking his hands away from his face and sitting back up. "...I'm worried." he added, after a moment, digging his fingers in the sand around his ankles. "I miss her." He whispered, mostly to his own bare feet. Katara didn't know what to say to that.

"Can you tell me how to swap places with your world's Zuko - like you did to come here?" He asked abruptly, turning to face her.

"Why would you want to go to my universe?" She asked a bit confused. "Everyone says it sucks there."

"I don't care if your universe is full of angry, feral spider-snakes, as long as I'm there with _her_." he said insistently looking straight at her, his gold eyes catching the sunlight. Oh, it made her feel things in her belly, looking into his eyes like that – those same butterflies from before - but she knew those eyes weren't for her. They were for this other, luckier, better Katara. The real one.

He meant it, every word, she could tell. He wouldn't have cared about spider-snakes, or danger, or anything, as long as he was with the real Katara. She was taken aback by his devotion. It broke her heart a little to have to whisper "I don't know how. I'm sorry."

He turned away from her again harshly, as if he was so disappointed in her he couldn't bear to look at her, as if he blamed her completely. "You think I'm doing this on purpose... but I'm not. This isn't my fault!" she said, her voice heavy with emotion. Not long ago, she was furious with this Zuko, but now it seemed like the worst thing in the world that he was sad and angry and blaming her.

It wasn't her fault. She hadn't asked to dropped into this shiny happy universe. This place existed just to rub her face in how sad and alone she felt at home, she was sure of it. She was alone here too, really. These were not her people, not really. In whatever universe, she'd feel alone. Katara felt a lump rise in her throat and a traitorous tear slip out.

"This isn't easy for me either! I'm all alone here and there's no one on my side." She snapped, trying to seem angry, to no avail. Her voice cracked, more tears welled in her eyes. "….no one is **ever on my side**." She finished with a wail. She gave into the great tide of misery and anxiety that had been welling in her all day. She felt sobs wracking her shoulders, and she knew stupidly hot Zuko was looking at her in horror, but she couldn't make herself stop crying.

"Oh no...err, stop that..." He started to say, sounding ridiculously alarmed. "….No, don't do that...don't cry... c'mon now. It's not so bad." he continued, only a moment before warm, strong arms pulled her into a hug. Then she really began to haul off. She let it out; all her misery from the past two years, all those feelings she pushed down – they were all coming out of her now in a great tide of emotion. Zuko held her tighter, one arm was around her waist, his other hand was smoothing her hair back. He was murmuring things like he was sorry and he hadn't meant to make her cry.

She could feel his lightning scar, through the thin fabric of his shirt, where her hands had gotten smushed against his chest. She buried her face into the crook of his neck. He smelled of soap, and something else she'd never been able to put her finger on; something smoky and spicy. Just like Zuko back home. This universe's Zuko was older, and healthier but he still smelled the same. He had the same quick temper, the same energy and warmth, the same awkward kindness. Perhaps they were not so different after all. He held her until her sobs had become small little hiccups. She wasn't even surprised when he dug a handkerchief out of a pocket and handed it to her, when her crying had subsided.

She felt an eerie calm descend on her as she hugged a knee into her chest, like the feeling in the air after thunderstorms. She felt like she was physically pulling herself together. She untangled herself from Zuko and started to wipe her face vigorously. It was at that moment that she felt a big wave of embarrassment hit her. She'd just cried all over him. She hadn't done that since the southern raiders. What must he be thinking?

"I just want you to know that I wasn't crying about you. It was other things." She said with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Is it so terrible in your universe? " He asked quietly, after a moment, having a guess at what was making her so upset.

"No... I mean it's not full of feral spider-snakes at least." She said, trying for a weak joke. But it was true. Home wasn't so bad really, all things considered. The war was still over, the nations were still working towards peace, even if it seemed like that was a slower process than here. Everyone that really mattered to her had survived the final battle. She should count her blessings for that. She tried to put into words what was really troubling her.

"You'd do anything to get your Katara back, but no one in my universe will even notice that much if I'm gone." She said after a moment.

"I'm sure that's not true. Everyone loves you." He replied easily.

"I don't know." She shrugged. She'd pushed them all away. She felt a flush of shame at how rarely she saw them, how she barely answered their messages, how she'd spoken to Toph, who only wanted to cheer her up and spend time with her. Toph who had tried to include her and instead received a metaphorical slap in the face. She couldn't blame them for not being there for her more.

"I'm lonely, back home." She confessed, softly.

"Perhaps it's a good thing I can't get to your lame universe then." Zuko muttered. "I never liked seeing you sad...How does the other Zuko stand it?" he said mostly to himself. His eyes narrowed in thought for a moment. "Surely it's not so bad though? Even when I was an angry- banished-pain-in-the-arse, I still had my Uncle. I felt so lonely, but Uncle was right there the entire time."

"What are you saying?" Katara asked.

" I _know_ your family. They can't have changed that much. You might feel like you're alone in your universe, but you'd have them. You'd have Sokka, and your Dad, and your Gran Gran" he said with certainty. " – frozen hell, no one would ever mess with your Gran Gran when it comes to you." he added with a rueful shake of his head.

" I heard she wasn't a big fan of yours." Katara said and nudged him.

"She's just protective. Lets just say it took her a long time to _warm_ to me." Zuko said with a little smile. They were silent for a moment.

"You'd still have me too." He added with equal certainty as when he'd been talking about her family.

"I mean...your universes' version of me" he added, to clarify. Then his eyes widened in horror, as he seemed to realise something "...unless? Did I die?"

"No, you didn't die." Katara said, chuckling despite herself at his dismayed face. He seemed so aghast at the idea. He turned to her and gave her a curious look and little shrug with his palms held upwards, as if to say 'why then?'

"You're not an option for me." She said firmly.

He actually snorted in response and said "Please, I'd _always be an option_ for you." with a licentious little nod and a wink. Was he _flirting_ with her? She gave him a weird look in response, one eyebrow raised in confusion and he seemed to realise who _exactly_ he was speaking to. "I didn't mean that to sound so sleazy." He said after a beat. Katara couldn't help but smile as he went a little red with embarrassment.

"but you know, unless I was dead, I'd be there to cheer you up, especially if you're are so sad in your universe... I mean, you saved my life" He said firmly. "...that still happened didn't it?"

Katara nodded.

"Well then." he said, and shrugged, like it was simple and her problem was solved.

"Well, you wanted to 'cheer up' someone else instead of me." Katara said tartly.

"Really, who?" he said with genuine bafflement.

"Mai." She spat, feeling her lip curl. She'd never like that girl.

He laughed. He laughed as if this was the most ridiculously thing anyone had ever said to him. He looked at her like he couldn't quite believe her, but Katara was the one who couldn't believe his reaction. She had never, ever seen Zuko laugh like that – all carefree and easy. She didn't even know he could laugh like that – head back and with no shadows behind his eyes. It only made him look more handsome, which annoyed Katara greatly. _Hot, laughing bastard_ she thought grumpily. He shouldn't be so good-looking when she was thinking about how he had made out with another girl.

"It was your coronation, and you were still hurt and I wanted to help. I came to find you, and I walked in on you and Mai...sucking face.." She couldn't keep the disgust from her voice. "And I thought..." She couldn't finish that thought. Couldn't put into words how much that moment had hurt her. "Anyway. I got together with Aang not long after."

Zuko nodded and looked at her thoughtfully, before saying "Katara, you know I was like a...a dry love sponge back then." like that explained everything. Now it was Katara's turn to look at him in bafflement.

"Hey – those are your words, not mine!" he said, pointing at her, conflating her with the Katara of this world. However 'little Katara' had no idea what a dry love sponge was. She hoped it wasn't too sexual – she didn't want to hear those kinds of details about her other self and Zuko.

"16-year-old me needed _lots_ of loving." He explained, but that only made Katara raise her eyebrows further. "No, not in a tawdry, slutty way." he admonished, as though she was the one saying weirdly sexual things.

"Just... you know what things were like for me...no one had ever shown me much affection." He paused, in thought. "I mean... I didn't get much... much love... growing up..."his voice trailed off. It was the first time he'd sounded genuinely hesitant. He looked down at his hands, which had been making patterns in the sand. "Anyway, you noticed that whenever anyone did show me any affection, I would be 'a bit weird' about it, but I'd also just been so keen for it..I'd absorb it...like a sponge. I would be right **in** there..." He gave her a rueful little shrug here, before adding. "Honestly, 16 year-old-Zuko made out with anyone who wanted to kiss him. If it had been you walking through the door first, instead of Mai, I probably would have been making out with you."

"So what your saying is..." Katara began slowly, feeling a smile creep over her face "that you're _easy_?"

He gave an exaggerated huff and flopped back on the sand again. "Why are you making everything I say sound so tawdry." Katara couldn't stop the bubble of laughter that burst out of her then. She smiled gently down at him. He always was so dramatic.

"So you didn't care about me or Mai at all then. The girl you kissed that day could have been _anyone._ If the cleaning maid had walked in, you would have made out with her?" Katara continued, enjoying this. Zuko flicked some sand at her, and Katara gave a delighted little squeal as she tried to ward it off and smiled down at him. He returned her smile, and sat back up.

"It's weird though, imagining there's some bizarro universe where I'm still with Mai...couldn't ever believe it would last between us." He observed after a moment.

"Well actually, it ends when she tries to kill you, or her dad tries to kill you or something."

"Bummer." he said with real nonchalance.

"What's Mai doing here?" Katara couldn't help but ask.

"Not trying to kill me." Zuko replied. "She's good. She's a bounty hunter in the Earth Kingdom. We saw her a couple of months ago at Ty Lee's. She's got some wicked tats that thankfully don't say _shut up Zuko._ " he said with a grin. Katara could tell there was a story there.

" Well, she was really mad about me forgetting her in prison, which is suppose is understandable." Katara nodded in agreement and Zuko continued his explanation. "She used to have this paper fan and she'd written on it in beautiful calligraphy _Shut up Zuko, nobody cares what you think!_ Then during my coronation and few other official functions afterwards – she was really sly, and she would shake it open. Then hold it up, for a split second in my eye line, whenever I was talking. Just to mess with me." he smiled widely, as if this was funny to him.

"She sounds as charming as ever." Katara snapped disdainfully. Zuko seemed remarkably carefree about her being so mean.

"She's alright. She was just hurt, I guess. People do all kinds of weird stuff when they're hurt." He was trying to assuage Katara's anger.

"Mai came to see me one day, about a month afterwards. She told me she was going to be a bounty hunter in the Earth Kingdom, and she wasn't angry at me any more. She let me set fire to her _shut up Zuko_ fan, but then she joked that her first tattoo was going to say _shut up Zuko_ if I was an idiot and ruined the Fire Nation." he finished.

"So you passed? The not-an-idiot test?" Katara asked sweetly, but with false surprise. He flicked some sand at her again as she giggled and ducked. He was so serious, she couldn't help but enjoy gently teasing him.

"What was her first tattoo then?" She asked nicely after a pause, genuinely curious.

"She got a tigerdillo, on her shoulder. She got it done with Ty Lee, when Ty Lee got her airbending tattoos. Ty Lee gets really freaked out about needles, so Mai went with her to hold her hand." he said calmly, like Mai was someone he liked and approved of; as if thinking of her didn't make him sad.

It was weird. She disliked Mai intently, and yet here was her ex-boyfriend talking about her like she was someone nice – after everything she'd done! Then again, this Mai had never got back together with this Zuko after Sozin comet – she hadn't done the terrible things Katara knew about. This world's Mai... she didn't sound too bad, Katara had to admit to herself. Not being with Zuko had obviously made her a better person.

"You're friends now." Katara observed.

Though it wasn't a question, Zuko answered any way. "Yeah, I mean, not close friends – not like I am with everyone else, but yeah. If we see each other, we catch up. There's no hard feelings."

"How are you even friends after breaking up?" Katara asked quietly. She'd never really considered the possibility that two people could fight, break up, but then come to a happier place where they could still be friends.

"We were just dumb kids. We weren't good together, and we both knew it. She would have hated being my girlfriend after I became Firelord, you know. She'd have been bored stiff. We're better as friends." he said, looking at her curiously.

"Do you think Aang and I would be on good terms if we broke up?" She asked, softly. It was her real question. She'd always thought that if she broke up with Aang, it would just destroy him. He needed her so much, and she couldn't bear the thought of him being alone and sad, especially if she could help him. She had assumed that if she did break up with Aang, he would just never get over it. He'd be too upset to even preform his duties as an Avatar, and the world was still rebuilding itself from 100 years war – her world needed the avatar.

Or worse. He always used to say he'd go into the avatar state if she ever left him. She knew he couldn't control his avatar state properly, no matter how much he tried to hide it from her. It sent a shudder down her spine just thinking of it. She hated seeing him lose control like that, when he was so full of pain and rage. Then again...there had been other times when he had lost his temper with her, and that had been frightening enough even without the Avatar State. He had been so mad when she didn't immediately return his feelings after the invasion. _I'll show you fire,_ she remembered him saying, before rocks exploded everywhere. It had scared her, a little bit, when he did that.

Would it even be possible for her and Aang to break up and then come to the place where they could be friends again? Could they break up and eventually be able to talk about each other with the gentle good-humour and affection that this Zuko clearly had for this Mai.

"I don't know...your Aang sounds different from our Aang." Zuko said slowly, choosing his words carefully, as if he could sense her dark mood. "But our Aang's a good kid. He's got a good heart. - Your Aang should still have a good heart. " He said, trying to sound more positive. "If you aren't happy with him, he'll come around...He'd want you to be happy surely. Things can't be _that_ different in your universe."

"Did he mind? Aang? When I choose you?" Katara asked, a little quietly. Zuko rubbed the back of his neck and avoided her gaze. She knew he'd tell her in a moment. He'd always been honest.

"Well, he punched me in the face when I told him" Zuko confessed. Katara made a worried face. "No, it's okay." Zuko reassured her. "He'd only just found out, and I let him. I told him he could do it, if it made him feel better. He clocked me really hard too. But honestly, I think it was good for him. We're great friends now." He added quickly.

"Because he could punch you in the face?" Katara asked slowly.

"Probably. It got something out of his system, at least. He had been a bit snappy with me before." Katara raised her eye-brows again at this. "He'd suspected us, but we'd been trying to keep it a secret to spare his feelings" Zuko supplied, in answer to her unspoken question. "Anyway... He punched me and then just took off. The next day I got this really long, apologetic letter from him. He told me that he was going to find Guru Pathik...and a couple of months later he got back from his big Guru-quest, and he was different...he seemed very at peace with everything. He gave us his blessing. He's been supportive since then." Zuko said reassuringly. Katara nodded absorbing this.

They sat together for a long moment, not speaking but watching the waves. It didn't feel awkward. It was a companionable silence. It was nice. Katara found that she was sneaking little glances out of the corner of her eye at this Zuko. He'd curled his toes in the sand and was gazing out at the deep blue of the water. His shirt had fallen open a little bit, and she could see the starburst scar there. Scars and all, he was still the most beautiful person she'd ever seen.

She knew perfectly why the real Katara loved him so. Katara herself had known this universe's Zuko for less than a day, and already she was a little bit in love with him herself ( _This is not your world. This is not your boy_ – a voice in her head whispered). He'd made her feel so many things. She felt calmer, better and more optimistic after talking with him. Sure, he'd been rude, but then the way he'd held her when she cried had been so gentle and reassuring. He'd listened...more amazingly, he'd made her laugh. She felt like he understood her, and that was such a novel feeling for Katara. She hadn't felt properly understood or listened to for such a long time.

Then he turned his head and gave her a little, lopsided smile. He had a slight overbite, which struck Katara as more attractive than perfect teeth could ever be. She could understand why girls would want to kiss him. She wanted to kiss him herself, right then. She'd never felt an urge so powerful as the desire that flooded her in that moment. It would be so easy to lean over...

She stood up abruptly and mentally shook herself out of it. She knew she shouldn't be having these thoughts. "We should get back." She said firmly. He nodded wordlessly and stood. They started walking back towards the house along the beach.

She noticed when they were walking side-by-side, that he was much taller than her. Perhaps he wasn't that much taller than Real Katara, but at this moment, she couldn't see his face at all. If she couldn't see his face, she'd be able to get up the nerve to ask her next question. She'd never be able to ask him to his face. It was so embarrassing, but she wanted to know so badly.

"How did we even get together? In this universe?" she eventually asked.

Zuko paused for a moment, his steps halted. "It started suddenly." was the first thing he said, when he started walking again.

"It was the last day in Ba Sing Se, after the treaties were signed. I was packing to go home. You'd come to help – and by help, I mean you were pretty much doing it for me." He smirked at that. She looked at him questioningly. "I was still moving really stiffly then, because of..." He said, gesturing to his lightning scar. "Anyway, you seemed to know when it was hurting me or when I couldn't do things, and you just started helping...without me having to ask." There was a long pause. Katara hazarded a quick glance at him, but he wasn't looking at her. He was smiling softly down at his feet.

"But that day, we'd been chatting a bit about how everyone would be going home, and what I was going to do back in the fire nation...and then you just stopped really suddenly. Then you said _Monkey-feathers!_ really crossly. You threw some of my things in my suitcase like you were really pissed off at them, like my shirts had personally offended you."

"I'm sure that's not how it happened." Katara interrupted.

"Err, I was there. I would know!" Zuko said with a smirk. "So obviously I was worried about your mental state. I asked if you were okay and I rubbed your shoulder. Mostly to stop you breaking my stuff, you understand..." he was teasing her.

"Anyway, you turned around and just blurted out _I really like you_..no really." He said with a huge grin in response to Katara's horrified, embarrassed look. " You said _Monkey-feathers, I really like you._ Those were your exact words. You were _really smooth_ about it." he trailed off, smiling at the memory.

"What happened then?" Katara asked.

"Then you kissed me. You just grabbed me like an octopus." Zuko said, as if it was obvious.

"Why would you even kiss me, if I was such a gross octopus?" Katara sniffed, trying to sound dignified, even though she felt like her face had gone a bright beetroot red.

"Are you kidding?! I was so delighted - it was like all my birthdays had come at once. Kissing you that day, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I nearly missed my airship back to the Fire Nation it was so great. I'd had such a massive crush on you for ages. " He was having too much fun retelling this, Katara thought.

"Since when?" she asked abruptly.

"Huh?"

"Since when did you have crush on me?" Katara asked more clearly.

"Since the catacombs. You offered to heal me, even though I was your enemy...I loved you for that." His answer surprised her.

"But I was so mean to you." She said softly. That meant he would have had a crush on her in the Western Air Temple, even when she was being horrible to him.

"I loved you for that too. You were so honest. I always knew where I stood with you." He said sincerely.

"I had no idea you felt that way." She whispered.

"Yeah, well I played it cool didn't I? I wasn't going to just randomly declare my love on some idle Tuesday and octopus grab you now, was I?" he said, a little too cheekily. She reached out with her bending towards the water, and splashed him for that one.

o0o0o0o0o00oo0

It was late afternoon by the time they got back to the house. She was welcomed back kindly by everyone. They had dinner. Suki and Toph started a lively debate about cross-bending, and entertained Katara's thoughts on the issues – even though they all knew this wasn't even her world. Still it was nice of them to listen, to include her.

For a brief, shining minute – Katara felt completely warm, loved and safe; and she couldn't shake off the optimistic feeling growing inside her. This was possible for her. She could go back to her world and reach out to all these people. They were still there, her friends.

Maybe she could go back and have this feeling again – it would be even sweeter, for being real. It wasn't impossible surely.

o0o0o0o0o00oo0


End file.
